The Arroyo Chronicles: Introduction

Wednesday, 23 November 2011 00:18

Written by Tony La Viña

With this column, I begin a new series on the legal travails of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. I write this series here in The Lobbyist on the issue an events surrounding the criminal charges filed (and will be filed) against the former President for its historical, political and yes human interest value. This can be a good moment for the country in exacting accountability from its leaders but, as I have written elsewhere, it can also be a night mare where a conviction is a consequence of a lynch mob mentality (making it a precedent for violating human rights) or an acquittal is because of bad and incompetent prosecution or worse a biased judiciary.

The flurry of events is staggering. Just a few days ago the country was gripped in a high drama staged by Congresswoman Arroyo attempting to leave the country for medical treatment abroad and the government doing everything to stop her. This placed the executive and the judiciary in a collision course. The ensuing legal tussle between Congresswoman Arroyo’s camp and DOJ secretary De Lima brought the country closer to a constitutional crisis amidst the Supreme Court’s issuance of TRO which the government adamantly refused to heed. The imminent constitutional crisis was only averted when the Comelec-DOJ panel investigating the alleged massive election cheating in the 2007 senatorial elections filed election sabotage charges against former Congressman Arroyo, former Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. and former Comelec election supervisor Lintang Bedol and subsequently a warrant of arrest was issued.

In a matter of approximately 6 hours, the Comelec DOJ panel recommended the filing of a case in court, raffled the case to a judge, a warrant of arrest was issued and personally served to the ailing congresswoman in her sick bed. The issuance of a warrant may have rendered the TRO moot insofar as the issue of whether the former president could leave for abroad. For all intents and purposes, she is now under custody of the court.

The suddenness and alacrity with which the Comelec panel and the court performed their job caught everyone by surprise. This is simply one for the books especially in a country where the “accepted norm” is a snail paced turn of the wheels of justice. After all, it took the Aquino government one and a half years to file the case against the former president. Understandably, the Arroyo camp and her allies in congress howled in protest, claiming that the Aquino government railroaded the proceedings. Yet, their protestations failed to gain sympathy from the public even as pictures of the hapless Arroyo with a neck brace circulated the internet. While the sudden whirl of legal initiatives leading to the arrest of the former president is a cause for doubts and suspicion, it is nonetheless a welcome development.
The reaction of the nation over Arroyo’s arrest was subdued at the most. There were no cries of protest from her “supporters” unlike during Erap’s arrest which was followed by a tumult of vehement protests from a throng of supporters who tried to prevent the arresting officers from performing their duty; or even after Marcos was unceremoniously forced into exile when remnants of his supporters known as “Marcos loyalists” refused to concede defeat. Neither is there any discernible expression of elation from the public during her arrest. This deafening silence is a good subject for study by political science students. Is the revulsion to the regime of the former president so universal such that no one, not even her kabalens, is willing to lift a finger in her ‘defense’? Or is the abhorrence by Filipinos over failed governance now transcends political and ethnic affiliations? Or are the perceived sins of the Arroyo government so grave such that she succeeded in alienating herself from even her most callous and rabid supporters, if they in fact exist?

The filing of a case against Arroyo is another historic event. It is a good day for the cause of accountability; for good governance. It is a strong message that being in power is not a license to abuse authority with impunity. It is a reaffirmation of the principle that public office is a public trust. Within a period of less than three decades, three presidents of the Republic have been resoundingly repudiated by the people – the first, forced into exile after two decades of dictatorship; the second, impeached, accused of plunder, convicted and imprisoned; and the third is facing very serious offenses and if convicted could possibly spend her remaining years in prison. President Aquino himself stated that there will be no pardon for her.

The phenomenal rise to power of these presidents and their meteoric fall from grace is a phenomenon in itself. Before their to rise to the presidency, Marcos was seen as a young, brilliant, and dashing politician; a consummate politician and statesman for the ages; Estrada was a tremendously popular actor-politician who could lift the masses from the mire of poverty; and Arroyo as a politician who could rival the popularity of her look-a-like Superstar Nora Aunor and as an economist was seen to have the knowledge and capability to lift the country from its perennial position as an economic cellar dweller. They started the presidency on a high note but all ended up with a crash. There must be a lesson here for our future presidents and yes to all of us who care about the politics of our country.
Suddenly being president of this republic is no longer a palatable and desirable proposition. But then again, who’s afraid of being president if only he remains faithful to his oath of office to “obey laws, legal orders and decrees, promulgated by the duly constituted authorities of the Republic of the Philippines.”

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