If Rodrigo Duterte still has doubts about the power of the presidency that he will soon assume, a court ruling issued yesterday should dispel them. I only hope he makes good on his promises to wield his near-unlimited authority for the good of the millions who voted him into office.
Among the many headline-grabbing statements made by president-in-waiting Duterte during the recent campaign was his plan to release Gloria Macapagal Arroyo from detention, if he is elected. Duterte made the statement during a meeting with supporters of his in San Fernando, Pampanga last Feb. 7, long before he shot up in the surveys as a frontrunner in the race and was propelled to an overwhelming victory last Monday.
The remark was not as sensational as fattening up the fish in Manila Bay with the corpses of criminals, but it was, as were many of the mayor’s statements, incendiary. And Duterte, as is his wont, delivered it with the in-your-face attitude that has endeared him to Filipinos aching for straight talk and Davao-sized cojones after six years of presidential pussy-footing.
“If I am elected president, I will release her,” Duterte said. “Why? Because the evidence [against her] is weak. I know that. I am a lawyer.”
I was reminded of Duterte’s proposal to release Arroyo when I learned that the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court acquitted former Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos on charges of graft in connection with the aborted proposal to put up a national broadband network in 2007. It took the anti-graft court all this time to find, as Duterte concluded in the case of Arroyo, that the prosecution failed to come up with enough evidence to convict Abalos.
The times are a-changin’ indeed. And the courts and state prosecutors, blinded for so long by the political hatred and vindictiveness of Malacañang and egged on shamelessly by its sycophants in the media, are suddenly re-learning the rules of evidence.
I have no doubt whatsoever that Duterte will make good on his promise to have Arroyo freed on the basis of the lack of real evidence against her, just like Abalos was. This despite the all-pervasive propaganda campaign waged against Arroyo, whose continued detention even the United Nations formally sought to end, with no apparent effect on Malacañan Palace and its servile—but highly selective—anti-corruption crusaders in the judiciary.
It takes someone like Duterte to knock some sense back into a judiciary that was bullied into submission by President Noynoy Aquino for six years. And I really hope that by the time Duterte steps down, he will have undone the damage to that institution, among the many others destroyed by his vendetta-obsessed predecessor.
On the other hand, I hope Duterte’s prosecutorial smarts will lead him to go after the corrupt officials and lawmakers who made hay even as Aquino was declaring how clean his government was—as long as the evidence warrants it, of course. I pray that Duterte pursues charges against the abusers of Congress’ pork barrel and the Disbursement Acceleration Program, the corrupt officials at the Transportation Department and a host of other agencies, not out of a sense of political revenge but because they stole the people’s money while claiming to be Aquino’s fellow travelers on the daang matuwid.
The thieves who held high office during Aquino’s term, after all, are as bad as—or even worse than, considering the damage they caused—the drug dealers and other criminals that Duterte has promised to go after.
And if the trail of corruption goes all the way to Aquino, as many have long suspected, then let him answer the charges against him, as well.
I do wish that Duterte focuses on the urgent problems besetting the nation that require immediate attention—things like the lack of public infrastructure, the decline of agricultural productivity and the deteriorating peace and order situation. But that should not mean that the thieves who enjoyed blanket immunity and protection under Aquino should be allowed to go scot-free.
Let justice be done, though the Yellow idols fall. That is the only way to make amends to those persecuted by Aquino out of his overweening hatred and vindictiveness.
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My favorite Dutertista, former North Cotabato Gov. Manny Piñol, has a score he wants to settle with Senator Antonio Trillanes. In so many sarcastic words, Piñol is asking the senator: So, we’re friends now, aren’t we?
Piñol wrote a Facebook post demanding that Trillanes, the designated hitman in a last-ditch attempt to besmirch Duterte, be made to account for the tall tales he spun against the Davao City mayor.
“You owe it to us who were hurt by your accusations [against Duterte] that you follow through with your charges against Mayor Duterte,” Piñol said. “Do not hide behind a feigned act of reconciliation.”
Makes sense to me. Trillanes cannot offer the hand of reconciliation to Duterte simply because the mayor is now about to become president—as if some kind of “no harm, no foul” rule was in effect during the campaign.
Man up, Sonny boy, and back up your charges of fantastic wealth in banks, dozens of undeclared properties and thousands of ghost employees at Davao city hall. Or apologize.
It’s that simple.