(2013-01-04) Philippines analysts like Jerry Finin, a senior fellow at the East-West Center in Hawaii, expressed perplexity at the government’s apparent plans to shutter the commission when much remains to be repatriated.
“I don’t know if it’s a lack of political will or if they feel there are other individuals in government who can do the job more effectively,” Finin said, noting that the Justice Department would be assigned to take over pending legal cases if the commission folds its tent.
Finin said he found it “ironic” that the current president seems to have acquiesced to shutting down a mission begun by his mother in pursuit of justice and accountability for crimes by a regime widely believed to have orchestrated the killing of his father.
“It sends a very bad signal,” Finin said, “not only to people in the Philippines but to populations under authoritarian regimes around the world, that there are very limited consequences for their actions.”
-- Also appears in: Stars and Stripes
