By Retired Gen. Filmore Escobal

What I just witnessed is a profound lesson about power. There are times when power is given, and times when it is taken. What happens in between is how one chooses to wield it. The exercise of power is a decision between maximizing personal gain or serving the public good. There is an inverse relationship between personal interest and public interest in the exercise of power. When power is used for personal benefit, it often results in the detriment of the public. However, when it is used to maximize the public benefit, it usually requires personal sacrifice.

In the end, no one has the right to judge the person who has wielded the power that was given to them.

In 2014, when he was still the mayor of Davao City, then-Mayor Duterte said: "The trouble with us in government is that we talk too much, act too slow, and do too little, don't we? What the country needs is not more laws but more good men in public service."

There are many among us who judge, myself included, for it is human nature. Perhaps, Duterte's statement about government officials also applies to us: "The problem with us Filipinos is we talk too much, act too slow, and do too little." I am at a loss for words to see a former president treated by his own people—the very ones who elected him—with such disdain. The arrest of a Filipino, handed over to a foreign power like the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has never fought a war with us,  by the government with the PNP  inside a military camp, is a deeply painful sight. I feel ashamed of myself and my country. I apologize for having done "too little"—only to share these events as they unfold, at times delayed because of weak or deliberately cut-off Wi-Fi signals.

When I retired as a police officer, after more than 37 years in the police service, I said in my retirement speech that I was returning my rank to the Filipino people who entrusted it to me. This rank would be passed to another officer who would carry on the duties and responsibilities attached to it. When I retuned to civilian life, I just  want to recover missed family time while in the active service  and spend my time in the company of my family and selected friends. I also tell junior officers during light moments, that I want to feel and enjoy the  product of the organization Im leaving behind with them as in charge—a safe place to live and the freedom to enjoy life. But now, I wonder: if our government can hand over a former president to a foreign court based on a warrant of arrest issued by a foreign judicial body, will we, the Filipino people, still feel comfortable and safe? Then simply talk too much, act too slow, and do too little?

This brings to mind a flashback: Remember Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton a U.S. Marine who was convicted of homicide in the Philippines for the death of Jennifer, Laude a transgender woman in 2014.  The U.S. government exercised its power to bring their “corporal” to his family in the United States. All the opposite of what our government just did, a former president not a corporal; still an accused and not yet convicted.

Power is temporary. Bomoto ng tama.

God save the Philippines!