Iglesia: Duterte trial should be in PH
The Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC), a supporter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, on Friday said the local justice system was working and that he should be tried in the country to uphold Philippine sovereignty.
“We’re not saying the former president should not be tried for the accusations against him,” INC spokesperson Edwin Zabala said in an interview on the sect’s television station Net 25. “Our stand is that the INC believes in the integrity and capability of our judiciary to decide these matters.”
No surrender
Duterte was flown to The Hague and surrendered by Philippine authorities to the International Criminal Court (ICC) last week to face trial for crimes against humanity for the thousands of alleged victims of extrajudicial killings in his drug war.
Malacañang said the move to bring him to The Hague was valid and legal, citing the country’s own law penalizing crimes against humanity and the Rome Statute which created the ICC which we had been a member of before Duterte ordered the country’s withdrawal that became effective in March 2019.
“Whatever is right and whatever is in our laws, that should prevail. This should not be twisted to suit the desire of anyone,” Zabala said, without identifying the person of group he was referring to.
“The law is the foundation that keeps order in our country. If the law is ignored it leads to disorder, feuds and injustice,” he added. “That’s why we should not surrender our country’s sovereignty to others.”
The INC held big rallies calling for “unity” around the country in January as it opposed plans to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte, following her bitter breakup with President Marcos and the collapse of their vaunted “Uniteam” that swept the polls in 2022.
The rallies, however, did not stop an overwhelming majority of the House of Representatives to proceed with her impeachment the next month. She will be tried by the Senate in July, according to Senate President Francis Escudero.
Catholic call to prayer
At the archdiocese of Manila, Archbishop Jose Advincula called on Catholics to pray an “oratio imperata for the nation” in all Masses starting next week, saying the country was in “a time of crisis, conflict and confusion” and at the “turning point of history.”
He made the call in a one-page circular on Friday addressed to the clergy and community of consecrated persons in the archdiocese, which also covers Mandaluyong City, San Juan City, most of Pasay City, and parts of Taguig City and Quezon City.
The oratio imperata will be prayed daily after the postcommunion prayer in all Masses starting the Third Sunday of Lent on March 23, including the anticipated Mass on March 22.
“We have witnessed emotionally intense events and discourses in the nation’s political spectrum. We have heard different opinions and viewpoints on various platforms. Our country is in a time of crisis, conflict and confusion,” he said.
