Selective Justice: The Real Threat To Democracy

Selective Justice: The Real Threat To Democracy

EDITORIAL — TheNATIONWEEK.com | August 5, 2026

The impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte has revealed a painful truth: justice in the Philippines is no longer blind. It is targeted, selective, and disturbingly political.

Every peso of P612.5 million in confidential funds is pursued with relentless intensity. Prosecutors deploy every argument, every witness, and every rhetorical device to depict corruption. Yet the funds were allocated for legitimate national security: to monitor and counter rebel recruitment within schools—a mission inherently requiring secrecy. Standard receipts cannot always be produced without endangering lives and compromising operations. To treat necessary discretion as proof of theft is either profound ignorance or deliberate persecution.

Meanwhile, trillions vanish into ghost flood-control projects, phantom infrastructure, and fabricated contracts. Those responsible remain protected. No witness is summoned. No documents are demanded. No urgency attends those investigations.

This is kleptocracy—rule by thieves. This is kakistocracy—rule by the corrupt and unfit. The imbalance is not an accident; it is by design.

Accountability must apply equally: to the Vice President and to those awarding multi-trillion peso ghost contracts. To every public servant—regardless of politics.

The stricken word “scam” belongs not to Duterte’s confidential funds, but to this reality: political opponents are prosecuted; allies are shielded. That is the true scam. That is the threat every Filipino must recognize.

Justice cannot be one-sided. When it is, it ceases to be justice. It becomes persecution. And when persecution becomes policy, democracy itself is on trial.

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