Path to redemption

You can’t choose your relatives.

Even your children, upon reaching a certain age, are expected to have attained sufficient discernment to distinguish between right and wrong, to face the consequences in case the manure hits the fan, and then to pick themselves up when they fall.

And what a fall it has been for Juanito Jose Diaz Remulla III. What was he thinking? Did he believe he could get away with bringing in nearly a kilo of high-grade cannabis through NAIA Customs?

In a handwritten note that was released to the media, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla expressed the anguish of a father whose child faces an uncertain future after being linked to crime.

Boying Remulla was in Geneva, Switzerland, explaining the human rights policy of Marcos 2.0 to the United Nations Human Rights Council when his eldest son Juanito Jose was arrested on Oct. 11 in a house at BF Resort Village in Las Piñas.

The operation was conducted by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. The PDEA said the suspect himself received a parcel from San Diego, California containing 893.91 grams of kush or high-grade marijuana that was consigned to him. The kush, misdeclared but sniffed out by dogs and detected by X-ray machines upon arrival at the NAIA, was brought by PDEA agents to the house at BF Resort Village in Talon Dos.

The marijuana trade is now completely legal in California and several other states in the US. But in the Philippines, importation of any amount of dangerous drugs or possession of at least 500 grams of marijuana can warrant life imprisonment and fines of P500,000 to P10 million. The PDEA is currently holding Remulla III without bail for kush possession and importation.

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There are, of course, two sets of rules for the grant of bail in this country: one for VIPs like the mother of the President who has been convicted of seven counts of graft, and the other for the hoi polloi.

And Remulla III, age 38, is high up among the VIPs. Arrested on Tuesday, there was no report about the drug bust from the PDEA for all of Wednesday.

Because of his surname, however, it was inevitable that journalists pestered the Remulla clan with requests for comment on rumors circulating about the arrest.

On Thursday, Cavite Gov. Jonvic Remulla confirmed that the arrested suspect is his nephew, without naming the father. In a subsequent social media post, the governor confirmed that Remulla III is the eldest son of the head of the Department of Justice (DOJ).

At around the same time, Boying Remulla released that screenshot of his handwritten statement, in which he wished his son “a path to redemption.”

He vowed to perform the roles of both father and DOJ secretary, promising not to intervene in the case and to let justice take its course.

Allowing justice to take its normal course might alarm those who see the criminal justice system as one of the weakest links in Philippine democracy. But the other part of the promise, on non-intervention, should be reassuring, and Boying Remulla will be held to his word.

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In their statements, both the DOJ chief and his brother the governor commended the PDEA for doing its job, even as they said their families were “devastated” by this turn of events.

Inevitably, critics of the previous administration’s bloody war on drugs reminded the current one that over 6,000 families are even more “devastated” by the loss of their loved ones who were killed by cops ostensibly for resisting arrest on drug offenses.

Critics have also resurrected Boying Remulla’s statement in 2019 when he was a congressman, supporting the death penalty for drug dealers who he said have the durable survival instincts of “cockroaches.”

Since becoming DOJ chief, however, and perhaps in line with the recalibrated drug war under the new dispensation, Remulla seems to have softened his stance.

Even before his son’s arrest, Remulla was already sounding the right notes – along with the chief of the Philippine National Police – on the new, holistic approach to the drug problem that is being pursued by the Marcos administration.

The DOJ chief also told us on One News’ “The Chiefs” that some cops who were merely pressured to participate in operations that led to the controversial drug killings wanted to come out and testify on police abuses. He urged such cops to come out and talk, saying they could be given protection by the National Bureau of Investigation.

In New York, meanwhile, President Marcos told The Associated Press, when asked to comment on Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, that “his people went too far sometimes.”

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Duterte has not commented on Marcos’ shift in the anti-drug campaign. But the marked difference in approaches and Remulla’s call on cops to testify about abuses have fueled suspicion that his son was specifically targeted by some quarters supportive of Duterte’s drug war, to embarrass the new administration.

The PDEA has maintained that it was unaware of the suspect’s family ties before the controlled delivery of the kush was launched. The consignee’s address wasn’t even in Cavite, the Remullas’ turf. The prominence of the surname, however, raises doubts about this story.

Still, if the PDEA’s claim is true, it should be commended for not bothering to find out first if the consignee might be a member of any prominent clan.

The PDEA has said it has a strong case. But it has drawn flak for the delay in announcing the arrest, and then pixelating the mug shot of Remulla III that was released to the media – a privilege not given to ordinary suspects. Did the DOJ chief ask for this?

Now the question is whether his current post has become untenable for Boying Remulla. What are his options?

Marcos quickly said he saw “no basis” for the DOJ chief to quit. Remulla said he served at the pleasure of the President. Yesterday he said he has a clear conscience; resignation “never entered my mind and it will not.”

With Remulla staying on, he might yet bring a newfound deeper understanding of the drug menace, born of personal tragedy, to the Marcos administration’s recalibrated campaign.

A key problem in Duterte’s drug war was the idea that underpinned it: that drug suspects, even before guilt was established beyond reasonable doubt, did not deserve a second chance and must be exterminated, like cockroaches.

The idea was that they were beyond redemption.