Kabataan Party-list on Saturday, Oct. 15, called for an “impartial investigation” into the illegal drugs case of Juanito Jose Diaz Remulla III, son of Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla.
This, even as the militant group criticized President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. for siding with the embattled Justice chief.
A known opposition and activist, the group also lamented the “delayed media coverage of his son's arrest, hinting at possible cover-up and undue influence by concerned people in power.”
The younger Remulla was reportedly arrested on Tuesday, Oct. 11, by Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) agents during a raid in Las Piñas City, but reports of his arrest only broke out on Thursday, Oct. 13. The raid yielded P1.3 million in “kush” marijuana.
“While we note the commitment of the DOJ Secretary to not interfere, we remain vigilant against any sign of special treatment, given the suspect’s family and class background which all too often becomes armor against accountability,” the group said in a statement.
READ: DOJ chief’s son nabbed with P1.25-M kush in anti-drug op
Kabataan, which is part of the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives, also denounced the President’s “empathic defense for Secretary Remulla because it “exposes his own intimate understanding and practice of dynastic politics that bends any remaining semblance of justice or democracy in our country for the sake of one's own kin".
Noting that political dynasties have long benefited from the “broken justice system in the country", Kabataan stressed that Marcos’s retention of the elder Remulla as Justice secretary despite calls for his resignation “reveals a political mindset favoring loyalty over integrity".
This practice, the group added, is “reminiscent of cronyism exercised by his dictator father to operate martial law".
“Sins of cronies are glossed over to ensure that they have allies who will keep them in power to maintain the authoritarian regime,” it stated, highlighting how the anti-insurgency task force National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) rushed to Remulla’s defense since he remains “one of the most vocal redtaggers in government".
READ: Sec. Remulla’s son charged criminally before RTC
Kabataan brought up the cases of Kian delos Santos, Carl Arnaiz, Chad Booc, and “thousands more” who had fallen victim to “a bloody class war” masked as the government’s anti-illegal drug and counterinsurgency campaign under the Duterte administration.
It warned that if the Philippines fails to “break away” from former president Rodrigo Duterte’s “legacy of extrajudicial killings and abuses,” then “we have no hope of securing justice and lasting peace for all under the Marcos Jr. administration".
Kabataan's representative in the House is Raoul Manuel.