Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla is distraught about the recent arrest of his 38-year-old son, Juanito Jose Remulla III, for possession of prohibited drugs.
That’s because Secretary Remulla is not only his son’s father, but he also happens to be the head of the government agency in charge of prosecuting criminal cases in the country.
Secretary Remulla learned of his son’s arrest while he was in Geneva, Switzerland where, ironically, he attended an international human rights forum where he defended the Philippine government’s war against illegal drugs.
Being abroad at that time, all that the justice secretary could do was instruct his wife to get a lawyer for their son, since one who faces possible criminal prosecution has the constitutional right to legal counsel.
Almost two days after Remulla’s son’s arrest, news about the controversy reached the mainstream news media.
In a television interview he gave upon his return to the Philippines, Secretary Remulla said the law must take its course, and his son is old enough to face the music on his own.
The publicity-seeking critics of the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. quickly denounced Secretary Remulla.
For one, the woefully misinformed and one-track-minded Albay Representative Edcel Lagman, who heads the discredited Liberal Party, said “the Remulla family must explain why it took almost two days for them to reveal or disclose the capture and detention of the Remulla scion.”
Apparently, it escaped the seemingly senile Lagman that it is not the legal obligation of the Remulla family to make any public announcements about the arrest of anyone in their family. Announcing the arrest of someone, Lagman conveniently forgot, is the task of police authorities, not the family of whoever gets arrested.
From that stupid remark, it was very obvious that Lagman was simply out for publicity like any typical traditional politician.
The equally misguided House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro also saw the incident as a chance to be in the news.
According to Castro, there seems to be a double standard in the handling of the case of Secretary Remulla’s son, and in the case of ex-Senator Leila de Lima, who has been detained since February 2017 likewise on drug charges, as well as in the cases of those who died in the anti-narcotics war of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
If Lagman seems to be approximating senility, Castro appears to be displaying premature symptoms of it. It’s obvious that Castro, who will say anything just to make it to the news, is running out of mental nutrition.
First, there is no basis for comparing De Lima to Secretary Remulla’s son. De Lima’s detention has been sustained by the Supreme Court; Secretary Remulla’s son’s case has not yet even reached the trial stage.
Secondly, the Remulla arrest has nothing to do with those who were killed in the drug war undertaken by President Duterte. Manifestly, Castro’s statement is a non sequitur.
The most appalling nonsense came from a virtually unknown sociologist named Athena Charanne Presto, who made an online call for Boying Remulla to resign his post as justice secretary.
Like Lagman and Castro, this Presto does not understand what she is babbling about.
Secretary Remulla has obviously allowed the case against his son to take its regular course, and he has refrained from influencing the legal process. The best proof of this is that criminal raps have already been filed against Remulla’s son; that the latter is currently detained; and that Las Piñas City prosecutors handling the case recommended no bail for him.
Being so, what is that noisy Presto protesting about? She should think before she lets out any hot air from her mouth.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. commended Secretary Remulla for recusing himself from any involvement in the processing of the son’s case. The President said a person should resign only if he is not doing his job properly.