Who had the final say?.

The 11 March arrest and forced transport to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, of former President Rodrigo R. During the 3 April Senate Committee on Foreign Relations second hearing on the controversial arrest, officials kept saying the Department of Justice was involved, but that was like telling the system worked without explaining how. He went on to say that a new apparent chain of command has surfaced: 1) The Secretary of Justice grants clearance; 2) the Secretary of Interior relays this to the Chief PNP; and 3) the Chief PNP gives the order to the CIDG Director. This differs from the traditional military-style chain where orders flow directly from: The President as Commander-in-Chief to the Chief PNP, to subordinate commanders, and then to local chiefs. Then there is the scariest part — if the PNP or Armed Forces of the Philippines acted on orders of someone other than the President, then our government institutions are broken. Because if we don’t, we’re accepting a dangerous precedent: that power can be exercised in the dark, that institutions can be weaponized without oversight, and that the people no longer have the right to know who governs them. Read Full Story