o sue us" has
become the standard Palace answer every time a new allegation of criminal
behavior is hurled against Gloria Arroyo, her husband Mike, their cronies and
their lieutenants.
Mike and former elections chair Benjamin Abalos are accused
of overpricing the $329 million national broadband network deal to accommodate
their commission.
Where’s the proof? Why don’t the accusers go to court? Palace
officials say.
Gloria is accused of committing treason by throwing what is
clearly Philippine territory into a pot of disputed territories to be covered by
an oil exploration agreement with China in exchange for dirty Chinese loans.
Where’s the proof? Why don’t the accusers go to court?
officials ask, sounding like a broken record. We will get there soon enough.
Perhaps not in the next two years unless Gloria is ousted before that. Witnesses
are being suborned, harassed or threatened. Documents are being hidden. Cabinet
members who have direct knowledge of the offenses are told to invoke executive
privilege.
But when Gloria exits in 2010, and possibly before that if
there’s justice in this world, the whole can of worms will be exposed. She will
by then have lost her immunity from suits.
Bilibid will be beckoning with state-provided food and
quarters for the rest of the thieves’ lives.
But let’s go back to the present and the Palace’s repeated
invocation of due process.
Not so long ago, the standard by which we weighed our public
officials was the Cesar’s wife doctrine. Cesar’s wife and, naturally, Cesar
himself, must be above suspicion. At the first hint of immorality, let alone
criminal behavior, a public official should resign or at the very least do
everything in his power to clear himself. He will call on all persons with
knowledge of the questioned act to tell all they know to clear his name. He will
unseal even the most secret state documents to redeem his honor.
In Gloria’s case, she acts like a criminal suspect, invoking
due process and determination of guilt beyond reasonable doubt. The difference,
of course, is that she controls the investigators as well as the prosecutors,
and possibly the judges too.
But if that’s the way Gloria wants herself to be treated – a
criminal suspect - fine. We will go along with her wish.
So following the Palace line, we have an unindicted –and
while in office unindictable - criminal suspect as President who is justified in
using all the powers of her office to obstruct efforts to gather evidence
against her, her husband and their accomplices.
That’s not a republican government. That’s rule by a criminal syndicate.
