The Supreme Court owes it to the public to resolve the disqualification case of Senator Grace Poe expeditiously.
As it is, the case is being dribbled, prolonging the uncertainty. It is time to cut the drama and come out with the decision. The show that the public is witnessing during oral arguments is more acting than anything else.
It is the classic case of good-cop-bad-cop technique, with Justice Carpio playing the bad cop and Chief Justice Sereno playing the good cop. This is probably the plan all along: Dribble the case as long as possible then drop the bombshell giving the opposing sides no time for appeal.
The justices of the Supreme Court must have studied the issues thoroughly by now and are therefore ready to render judgment. Why prolong the agony? The case has also generated so much passion that it is becoming the main show instead of the elections. Those who want Poe disqualified are as passionate as those who want her to run. Prior to the uncertainty, her ratings were nearing 40 percent, way ahead of her prospective opponents. Now, she is rating second to Vice President Binay who in spite of the allegations of corruption labelled against him has gone back to being the frontrunner. Clearly, the disqualification case has affected her ratings.
This, however, could change easily if the Supreme Court decides in her favor. I believe this is a long shot. From my 007 inside the Supreme Court, there is a bigger chance that she will be disqualified. But this is by no means a done deal. My information is that there is so much pressure coming from the Palace for the disqualification of the Senator that the guessing game is now about who among the justices will succumb to the pressure, and who will stand their ground.
* * *
As a former military and police officer, I think it is heartbreaking to see the senior leaders of our Armed Forces and National Police go at each other during the last Senate hearing of the Mamasapano operation. In all my 35 years of military and police service, I have never witnessed an open clash between leaders of both services like the one we all witnessed during the hearing.
At the height of Martial Law, we in the whole of the Armed Forces to which the Constabulary belonged knew of the existing tension between Chief of Constabulary and the Chief of Staff of the AFP. Still, there was civility and never an open clash. The spectacle that we witnessed in the Senate did not only send the wrong message to the public that both services serve but also to our neighboring countries who must have been observing what was going on.
No wonder we are getting low ratings as far as military capability is concerned. This has to stop.
That this had to happen was all because of a president who cannot be a man and face his responsibilities. This is a president who participated in a caper and then whose hand was caught in a cookie jar, only to deny his participation and let others take the blame for his leadership failure.
The behavior of the senior leaders of the Armed Forces is quite understandable. They were just doing what they were trained to do. Stand by their Commander in Chief and protect him. Many were also somehow disappointed about the hearing because there was no smoking gun. It is true that there was no documentary evidence presented to counter the denials of the President and his loyal subordinates but the questioning of Senator Enrile somehow showed that this President could not have been as innocent as he claims to be. His text messages showed his grasp of what was going on. He knew exactly what he was asking and what he was ordering his good friend Alan Purisima to do. What the disappointed public witnessed during the hearing was more denials from the President’s subordinates that Senator Enrile was made to remark that someone is lying.
In fact, many were lying. One thing that is hard and difficult to do is to lie for someone. In police interrogations where witnesses could be questioned separately, it would be easy to break a lie. But in the Senate investigation, it was only Senator Enrile who was doing most of the questioning and although the good senator is the sharpest of lawyers when he was younger, it is hard not to notice that his reflexes has somehow slowed a bit. After all, he will be 92 years old in a few days. As a result, the President has once again dodged the bullet. With five months remaining in his administration, we will not find any closure to the episode. But that does mean that we will never get to the bottom of what this President did and did not do in Oplan Exodus. Yes, Senator Enrile did not present any documentary evidence such as memos or proceedings of a conference but it does not mean that these documents do not exist. One thing about this type of undertaking is that combat operations cannot be done without documentation. Someone out there I am sure is keeping many documents pertaining to Oplan Exodus and with proper sleuthing, these documents will come out.
The justice that the relatives of the SAF44 and the public are looking for is not only the prosecution of those who killed the SAF44 nor the seeking of more benefits because the families have been more than compensated but the justice that everyone is looking is the unearthing of the true and exact participation of this President.