Impunity is at its peak under the US-Duterte regime. While human rights defenders, nationalist and patriotic forces are successively killed and illegally arrested, the fascist regime remains ready to put one foot forward to absolve true criminals. LUMABAN-Bikol strongly condemns the illegal arrest of Nelsy Rodriguez, BAYAN-Camarines Sur Chairperson, and Ramon Rescovilla, CONDOR-PISTON spokesperson. They were arrested based on trumped-up murder charges. In the same manner, Jenelyn Nagrampa-Caballero and Pastor Dan San Andres, also patriotic and progressive leaders, were arrested last July.

How is it that Rodriguez and Rescovilla were readily arrested and hundreds of political remain in prison while a true murderer is being set loose? It was only yesterday that Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton, an element of the US Army infamous for the murder of Jennifer Laude, was granted absolute pardon by the fascist regime. The same way, officials and elements of the AFP-PNP-CAFGU, plunderers and fascists remain free to roam around without fear of persecution. And if they do turn out to be incarcerated, they do so in grand fashion, with complete amenities that even a low middle-class family could not afford to sustain. To top it off, it is only under this type of society that an aspiring dictator can revise history and venerate the Marcos family’s bloody rule and pass it off as heroism.

A justice system drafted and enforced by a self-serving ruling clique has left the people with no other logical choice but to wage a revolution. It permits the persecution of critical witnesses of landmark cases, of revolutionary leaders who organize and mobilize the people, and even of scientists who present new ideas based on objective data. Jesus Christ, Galileo Galilei, Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela and many more revolutionary leaders and thinkers were all victims of political persecution under this moribund justice system.

The Filipino people’s experience of continuing poverty, hunger, injustice and despotism ensures that Duterte and similar-minded successors will never triumph in silencing the people’s collective rage and desire to install a new system that will genuinely allow them to attain justice.

LUMABAN-Bikol strongly calls on the Bikolano masses to unite and fight for justice. All current and prospective legal practitioners have a courageous task at hand. In the eve of a people’s war, they have a choice of whose rank to stand with. Refusing to stand for the interest of the people is tantamount to condemning the future of all Filipino people in the hands of oppressors and exploiters.