EDITORIAL – Anti-Corruption Day

On the eve of International Anti-Corruption Day, the Office of the Ombudsman indicted Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito and 19 others for graft over the purchase of high-powered guns when he was mayor of San Juan.

The ombudsman also indicted yesterday former Bureau of Corrections director Gaudencio Pangilinan and two BuCor personnel on charges that they split a construction contract into 11 smaller ones to avoid public bidding.

Malacañang, for its part, yesterday suspended for 60 days Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama for grave misconduct and abuse of authority for ordering the demolition of a traffic island and street lighting project that was implemented without his approval.

Pangilinan was an appointee of the Aquino administration, but both Ejercito and Rama are opposition figures, with the Cebu City mayor leaving the administration Liberal Party in 2012 to join the United Nationalist Alliance. The charges against them may be valid, but with the elections just six months away, there are people who will agree with their complaint that the actions are politically motivated.

Such moves can erode the credibility of an anti-corruption campaign. The public is still waiting for the ombudsman to send to jail without bail officials allied with the administration who were implicated in the pork barrel scam and the Disbursement Acceleration Program. The prosecution zeal appears to have sputtered to a halt with the detention of opposition senators Jinggoy Estrada, Ramon Revilla Jr. and Juan Ponce Enrile, now out on bail. Plunder complaints are also awaited against the officials responsible for awarding without public bidding a multimillion-dollar maintenance contract for the Metro Rail Transit.

Any anti-corruption campaign deserves the support of all sectors. Today the nation joins the world in observing Anti-Corruption Day. The fight, however, is waged best in the same way that justice is applied: equally, without partisan considerations.