MANILA, APRIL 1, 2011 (BULLETIN) BY JULIE YAP DAZA -Days, weeks, months before the scheduled execution on Wednesday of three "drug mules" in China, Beijing's ambassador to Manila appealed for understanding of Chinese law. The law is the law, he reiterated, over and over.
Filipino lawyers are used to quoting that same principle in Latin, "Dura lex, sed lex" (the law is hard, but it is the law), even if they belong to a culture where, as they are intimately aware, the law is the exception.
Just as every law contains an exception, everyone in the Philippines knows they have an inborn right to be exempted from every kind of rule, regulation, order, ordinance, decree, every law made by man and God.
If we can invoke exceptions to the laws of physics (look at our traffic jams), so can we invoke exceptions to the laws of nations, especially friendly ones. Truly, we are an exceptional nation.
After exhausting Ambassador Liu Jianchao's patience, is it timely to explain our ne'er-say-die attitude?
More than 100 OFWs face the death penalty in China and elsewhere, in countries where sentencing is final, irrevocable, and nonnegotiable.
As an American diplomat learned from his Manila experience, "Nobody says no in the Philippines." The law is the law, yes, that's why we always pray for exceptions/exemptions.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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