You’ll have to pardon Archbishop Cruz. He’s handcuffed to the example set by Pope John Paul II. In Malacanang, the Pontiff told Ferdinand Marcos to his face: “Government can not claim to serve  the common good when human rights are not safeguarded."

“Under Marcos, military murder was the apex of a pyramid of terror - 3,257 were killed, 35,000 tortured and 70,000 incarcerated," Alfred McCoy writes in “Closer Than Brothers” ( Yale University ) That is lower than Argentina’s 8,960 victims but exceeds the 2,115 extra-judicial deaths under General Pinochet in Chile. “The Filipino-English dialect coined the neologism ‘salvaging" to capture the aura of terror."

“The armed forces were no longer the servant of the state. Brutal and brutalized, the genie “became the bastion of a particular regime. Young lieutenants, Gringo Honasan, Rodolfo Aguinaldo, Victor Batac and others tortured in “national security’s name. “The Metrocom Intelligence and Security Group produced some of the most fearsome and brutal cops in memory. Panfilo Lacson joined MISG right after his PMA graduation and rose through its ranks, for the next 15 years, on a fast track to national police power."

As in Argentina and Chile , the military here wrung impunity for crimes and coups from the fragile post Edsa One democracy. “Torturers were transformed into heroes.” And despite lonely protests from Senator Franklin Drilon, amnesty was given even for “death squads of PMA graduates led by their barons," the study adds.

Impunity has consequences. Masterminds of Benigno Aquino’s murder haven’t been brought to book. And its  legacy spans generations. The Magdalo mutineers were a handful, editor Marites Vitug says in a Christian Science Monitor interview. Many officers work by constitutional values. But others continue to see themselves “as a fiefdom outside normal national law." This lack of accountability stokes some of the country’s long-running conflicts.

 Impunity surging through a weak state, wracked by insurgency and resurgent political warlords, triggered blood lust.

Orphaned by People Power One, communist leaders unleashed pogroms: “Kadena de Amor” in Quezon-Bicol (1982), “Kampanyang Ahos” in Mindanao (1985-86), “Operations Missing Link” in Southern Tagalog (1988) “Olympia” in Metro Manila ( 1998-99 ), among  others. Commissars acted as prosecutors, judges and executioners.

How many victims did that psychotic nightmare claim? In a 2003 Inquirer interview, former Communist Party (CPP) chair Rodolfo Salas estimates 1,800 were executed. University of the Philippines Professor Walden Bello figures 700 killed in purges that netted five agents. Who knows? All the graves have not  been located yet.

A decimated CPP ultimately halted the slaughter. But communists who quit the movement were salvaged to terrify others. Romulo Kintanar, Felimon ‘Popoy’ Lagman and Arturo Tabara were cut down. “It’s sometimes necessary to kill the chicken to scare the monkey," Jose Maria Sison quoted Mao to justify Kintanar’s murder, Pierre Rousset writes in “The Post 1992 CPP Assassination Policy.” But Kintanar’s widow screamed at Sison: “Stop playing god.”

Like Khmer Rouge executioners, pogrom killers haven’t been held to account. Some are button-down executives in Makati today, survivors say. Reps. Satur Ocampo, Teodoro Casino, Liza Masa are deaf  to plea from relatives to locate killing field graves.

‘The defense of human rights and human dignity" has to be impartial, irrespective of religious belief or ideology," Catholic bishops noted in their 2006 statement. That includes areas barely touched upon by the Melo Commission or the UN’s Alston report, like executions in Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s Davao and Mayor Tomas Osmena’s Cebu .

In 2007, summary executions rippled out from Davao City to del Norte and Oriental, the Human Rights Commission says. Some 147 were killed in 2005, the US State Department reported. In Cebu City , the body count is 173 today. Pervasive weakness in rule of law, official impunity, and the wide disparity between rich and poor contributed to cynicism about official justice.

Cebu’s death squads improved on Davao : Two motorcycle teams back up for the pointman and executioners. Bounties are clipped from businessmen for community security. “Greater love than this no man hath than to lay down" - someone else’s life for my peace and order."

Now, 99 judges will start to handle cases of salvaging and abductions. Decisions must be handed down within 30 days. This is welcome. Their performance will show whether impunity is ending. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll find that cork