Dispatch from Crame No. 374
THIS IS NAKED TYRANNY; DUTERTE'S RAPE OF JUSTICE-
Sen. Leila M. de Lima's Statement on Duterte's order to arrest

Political persecution is something we always expected from Duterte. What we did not expect is the swiftness of how our institutions would be coopted and our laws bastardized by an authoritarian President.

The effects of amnesty, the principle of double jeopardy, and the judicial nature of arrest warrants have long been established in our legal system. We did not expect that it will take only one strongman to demolish the legal system and all its fundamental principles in one fell swoop.

This is what Duterte has achieved in ordering the arrest of Senator Trillanes without any judicial warrant, despite a case dismissal that has become final and executory, and with the illegal goal of putting him in double jeopardy.

The criminal case of Sen. Trillanes for the crime of coup d' etat has been closed years ago. It has long been dead and buried and, because of the amnesty granted to him, long forgotten. Amnesty, like death, extinguishes all criminal liability. There is neither a crime nor a criminal case to speak of. Not even the court that tried Trillanes's case can bring it back from the dead.

But these are different times. This is the age of Duterte, where anything can be made to stand on its head, where the law can be twisted any which way Duterte wants, where institutions like the AFP, PNP and the DOJ will readily follow illegal orders, and where dead cases can be brought to life.

When neither finality of judgments nor the proscription against double jeopardy can protect citizens from State persecution, then we have indeed reached that point when we can say that we are now under a naked tyranny.

No matter how the government's lawyers legitimize the tyrannical act with their bastardized version of what the law is, this unprecedented action against Sen. Trillanes will remain to be an illegal and a profoundly deceitful act.

No army of lawyers large enough, and stupid enough, can defend it. No amount of legal verbosity and pedantry can justify it. It is nothing less than an assault on the law and the rape of justice.

And just like women, who are raped not because they are beautiful but because there are rapists, justice is raped in the case of Senator Trillanes, not because justice deserves to be raped, but because there is a rapist out there. His name is Rodrigo Roa Duterte, and he wants to be first in line in the gang-rape of justice by this government.

We will never forget all the others who fell in line behind him.