Sept. 24 2016, 11:00 a.m. – A SUPREME Court justice urged Thomasians to speak up and help put an end to summary killings in the country, warning that silence amid abuse of power would lead to injustice.
“Our silence undermines the power of public trust. Silence above corruption and abuse of power is not only unjust, our silence when we have the ability to speak is also a cause of injustice,” Associate Justice Marvic Mario Victor Leonen in a lecture at the Benavides Auditorium last Sept. 22.
“Let us stop killing Filipinos. Prosecute crimes aggressively but professionally. [I]t is time we do our part. It is time that we find courage to do things differently. It is time that we live with the discomfort of doing something that is different but right and just,” he said.
Citing human rights violations during Martial Law, Leonen branded torture and summary killings as “shameful, naked brutal acts of those who may have simply been transformed into desperate cowards.”
Leonen reminded his audience that extrajudicial killings are unconstitutional. He cited Article 2, Section 11 of Constitution, which states: “The state values the dignity of every human person and guarantees the full respect for human rights.”
Leonen, 53, was a former dean of the UP College of Law and government chief peace negotiator. He was appointed to the high tribunal by President Benigno Aquino III in 2012.
‘Admission of weakness’
Leonen said he considered the legal maxim “dura lex, sed lex,” Latin for “the law may be harsh, but it is the law,” to be an admission of weakness by authorities.
“It sounds like a punctuation to end an unfinished argument, a justification for injustice. This canon needs to be critically analyzed,” he said.
“I assert that the rule of law is irrelevant unless it is the rule of just law. Not only is this a cogent philosophical position, it is also necessary as it is what our fundamental law now prescribes.” Maria Crisanta M. Paloma
