Francis Escudero on Justice

"A gentleman treats his fellow man with fairness, always giving him the benefit of the doubt."

"In the meantime, I urge all military and police commanders to make sure that human rights are respected during this period."

"We must enforce the laws and enforce them speedily. People will obey and follow our laws if there is certainty of punishment."

"The Revenue Program for 2015 includes incremental revenues of P50.63 billion from R.A. No. 10351 or the Sin Tax Reform Law of 2012."

"It has been said Mr. President, that while we can only read the prose in the laws we pass, he sees numbers in them, and imagine them in digits."

"This is not the first attempt to pass a right-of-reply bill in the Senate. A similar bill was filed in the pre-martial law chamber but did not prosper."

"Prior to martial law, we had only around a million Filipino immigrants to foreign countries. Today, estimates reach nine million Filipinos who have voted with their feet."

"I was once asked why I was always on the wrong side, I said, "probably not just on your side." In a democracy, there isn't supposed to be a wrong or right side. Just what the majority wants, nothing more."

"Sports' landscape has changed through the years. We have seen the rise of countries we used to beat in the Southeast Asian Games and we are fighting hard just to be able to make it in the middle of the pack."

"I once said that I would support any decision that Senator Grace makes regarding her role in the 2016 elections. As a candidate or ordinary supporter, I’m prepared to stand by her, just as I did for FPJ over 11 years ago."

"It would be best to show our people that we can deliver rather than make promises that we can't keep. There is just one thing that I will do however, and that is to bring the voice and the vote of our people to the Senate."

"But these two have been intractable problems for decades, even a century. Their root causes have been social injustice and economic injustice. Brilliant minds and experts have been harnessed to tackle these problems. And still the problems persist."

"In victory and more especially in defeat, we should stand behind and be proud of Pacquiao. He has nothing to be ashamed of. Pacquiao gave it his all. It just so happened that Marquez was the better boxer, at least for today. My congratulations to him."

"I am not convinced that we need to shell out almost Php54 billion of public funds just to take over MRT-3.Mag-usap lang ng maayos ang DOTC at MRTC , analyze and agree on terms and conditions to improve the state of affairs of our mass transport system."

"Profiling is and always will be an arbitrary and unfair tool! No civilized government, much less ours, should use or employ it. No one can and/or should generalize within and among races/religions/genders/ages/social strata. We are all equal before the law!"

"We received Jewish refugees during the Holocaust, Vietnamese refugees after the Vietnam War. We are even prepared to receive the Rohingyans who were stranded in the seas this year. No nation should just be a bystander in the face of this human emergency crisis"

"The Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Justice should immediately and without delay get in touch with their counterparts and demand the attendance of the four witnesses. Such demand is covered by the Visiting Forces Agreement which calls not only for Respect for Law but the obligation to make available the US personnel for investigative or judicial proceedings. As worded in Article V, "US military authorities shall, upon formal notification by the Philippine authorities and without delay, make such personnel available to those authorities in time for any investigative or judicial proceedings." The VFA clearly states that the Philippines has criminal jurisdiction over US soldiers involved in a crime in the country, and it is a matter of invoking it with speed and conviction. The VFA, undoubtedly, is one sided and as such we must always insist and be vigilant with what is accorded us as a matter of sovereign right in that treaty. This is incident calls for the Philippine authorities’ and the Filipinos’ righteous indignation to fight for custody of the suspect and demand for the physical availability of the four American witnesses. We cannot just sit idly by and watch while our laws are being subverted. If we cannot defend, protect nor assist our fellow Filipino right here in our own soil, what chilling message do we get out there to our people and especially to those who are outside Philippine soils? We cannot begrudge the US for acting to protect the interests of its nationals and its interests. Our own officials should also, with the same fervor, do the same. This is why I continue my call for the review of the VFA for clearer, stronger and stricter stipulations which are mutually beneficial to both parties in every step of the way."

"We cannot just sit idly by and watch while our laws are being subverted. If we cannot defend, protect nor assist our fellow Filipino right here in our own soil, what chilling message do we get out there to our people and especially to those who are outside Philippine soils?"

"Let us not just bear witness to cases of involuntary and forced disappearances. These have caused our country big black eyes and have placed us under tight watch of both local and international rights groups and even foreign governments. We need to put this measure in place."

"The 92-page court en banc decision penned by Justice Lucas P. Bersamin ruled that there are three acts and practices under the DAP which are deemed “UNCONSTITUTIONAL for being in violation of Section 25, Article VI of the 1987 Constitution and the doctrine of separation of powers."

"The COMELEC decision is both unfortunate and wrong. It ignored jurisprudence and interpreted the law to render injustice rather than justice. We will, nevertheless, follow the process and keep our faith in the justice system. I firmly believe that Senator Grace will prevail in the end."

"Lastly, we have also added the proviso in Section 3 on the Use and Release of Funds, that a uniform formula or parameter be developed for the fair and equitable distribution of Emergency Shelter Assistance funds across typhoon-affected barangays, municipalities, or provinces nationwide."

"Fascinated in the sense that it’s advanced human rights; it’s advanced in the sense that everything in your license, everything in your birth certificate can now be determined by the person himself. Nothing to be determined by the accident of birth. That is advanced citizenship, and I am all for it."

"While it took all of 27 years for the state to finally recognize the atrocities it inflicted on Filipinos whose democratic rights were suppressed under Marcos, the compensation law seeks to give justice to victims of the dark days of oppression and hopefully give an assurance that it will not happen again."

"We must raise the quality of government service. We must work together and help one another to forge into reality our collective dream of a progressive, developed, orderly, and happy nation, where justice prevails and peace reigns! A country where every Filipino is treated equally, where no one is left behind."

"The current state of emergency would have sufficed to address the clamor for justice for the massacre victims and restore the rule of law in the province. For the longest time, this government has tolerated and promoted the culture of warlordism in Mindanao. Now, it seeks to be a warlord to undo what it has done."

"I strongly challenge the sincerity and intent of the MILF: identify and surrender your men before the bar of justice. This is part of your commitment to the peace agreement. Now if you say they are not from your ranks but from the other armed groups, you are still duty-bound to identify and surrender these people who committed the crime."

"First, on my list would be Good Governance. We must repair our house. Many of our institutions have been severely weakened. The trust and faith in the fairness of such critical institutions as the Comelec, the Dept. of Justice, the AFP-ISAPH, the PNP, the Sandigan aside from the chronically corrupt Bureau of Customs and the Bureau of Internal Revenue."

"I condemn in strongest possible terms, the murder of Jennifer Laude . The police and prosecutors should act fast, lest the prescriptive period to be breached. In the meantime, as before, I call on and urge the Department of Foreign Affairs to revisit and seek the amendment of the lopsided criminal jurisdiction provision of the Visiting Forces Agreement ."

"The issue of prisoner swap is highly emotional and delicate. We have to carefully tread within the ambit of a particular country’s laws, which we would also like other countries to respect ours. But as a government, it behooves us to do everything within our capacity to give our people what the government should – to protect its people in and out of the country."