IT is well-settled under popular sovereignty that laws are no longer instruments of the king, but are instruments of the people to protect themselves from abusive leaders. In this system, no one is above the law, not even the people and certainly not the leaders. Thus, while laws are crafted by elected representatives whose power is bestowed by the people, everyone must submit to them without exception. Even government itself is bound by its own laws.

Everyone knows this. Even the diehard Duterte supporters (DDS) know this when they reminded Maria Ressa, Rappler and ABS-CBN Corp. with their collective mantra of “the law is law.” This is what they use when they justify the red-tagging of people as communist terrorists or when they cheer President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. They impose on drug pushers, smugglers and users what they perceive as a necessary justification that because what these people do is illegal, then they deserve the iron rule of the law as enforced by the state.

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