There is No Rule of Law in the Philippines

Can everyone stop pretending the rule of law exists in the Philippines? Here is another example of many that such a state does not exist in this country.

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/regions/943095/3-on-motorcycle-killed-in-collision-with-truck-in-negros-oriental/story/

Three persons on a motorcycle were killed after they collided head-on with an oncoming truck in Barangay Poblacion in Zamboanguita, Negros Oriental.

According to a report on "24 Oras," CCTV footage from the area showed the motorcycle speeding moments before the crash. 

The three riders ended up under the truck and died on the scene.

The Zamboanguita police said the victims’ families have decided not to press charges against the truck driver. The owner of the truck has reportedly pledged to assist with funeral expenses.

It would seem that if the motorcycle was speeding then they are at fault and not the driver of the truck.  But that is not for me to determine. That is not for the family to determine. That is for THE LAW to determine. And yet because the family has decided to not press charges this guy is going to walk away scot-free. 

The term "Rule of Law" generally applies to the state. Here is what Francis Fukuyama says in Political Order and Political Decay. 

The institutions of the state concentrate power and allow the community to deploy that power to enforce laws, keep the peace, defend itself against outside enemies, and provide necessary public goods. The rule of law and mechanisms of accountability, by contrast, pull in the opposite direction: they constrain the state’s power and ensure that it is used only in a controlled and consensual manner. The miracle of modern politics is that we can have political orders that are simultaneously strong and capable and yet constrained to act only within the parameters established by law and democratic choice.

Political Order and Political Decay, Francis Fukuyama, pg. 22, ebook

But the rule of law must be extended to every sector of society. Everyone must be subject to the same laws. It is the state who is the enforcer of the law. In this case the state is represented by the PNP. But the PNP has delegated their power to the victim's family. It is not for them to decided the fate of the driver. He must be subject to the laws of the land. If he is not then there is no point in having laws. 

This is not just a policing failure. It is a systemic breakdown of the rule of law. It signals that how others feel matter more than what the law says. That’s not justice. That’s not order. That’s not a state.

In countries where the rule of law prevails, a person involved in a fatal collision would be investigated, and the evidence—CCTV, witnesses, forensic reports—would be weighed by prosecutors. There, the question is not “do the victims forgive him?” but “did he break the law?”

In a functioning rule of law system, crimes are offenses against the public order, not merely against individuals. That’s why the state prosecutes vehicular homicide even if no one files a complaint. When prosecution is contingent on personal feelings,  justice is replaced with sentimentality.