For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind; it hath no stalk; the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up. Hosea 8:7
Yesterday, I read a news article about former President GMA currently Congresswoman of the 2nd District of Pampanga being made to go through the security checks at the airport, passing through the metal detector device, and even having her remove her belt as she was frisked by the airport police. It would have been, for me, an insignificant incident were it not for the storm of comments online about the “frisking.” Some, a minority, were appalled by the lack of courtesy given a former head of state; most, however, had the completely opposite view and viewed the incident as a prequel to a brick load of payback that GMA was in for. According to one comment, GMA was about to “reap the whirlwind.”
And yes, definitely she has a lot to answer for from using fertilizer funds to buy votes (stealing from farmers who are the poorest of the poor) to calling Comelec Commissioner Garcilliano to pad her votes (“Hello Garci”) to having an appalling human rights record (with extra-judicial killings and forced disappearances becoming a norm in her administration; note how the Jonas Burgos case still remains unresolved) to creating the conditions for the Maguindanao Massacre. If we are to have Rule of Law in this country, then justice must be meted out against GMA as well as against all those who connived with her. One cannot forget E.O. 464 (her executive order that prevented cabinet members and “such other officers as may be determined by the President” to attend congressional hearings without her permission, which was used to undermine the Senate’s NBN-ZTE inquiry), the repeated attempts to amend the constitution (Cha-cha), and the CPR or “calibrated preemptive response” that was used to physically disrupt rallies and other mass protests, which have formed part of the ill legacies of the GMA administration. Accordingly, save for a small minority of her rabid supporters, she may be the most hated president in Philippine history.
But here’s the great challenge not only for the current Aquino Administration but for all citizens who seek to be active in governance: in the quest for justice against GMA, we must be ready and willing to give her justice as well. Meaning that there must be no witch-hunt against GMA and her ilk.
Certainly, for those families who have loved ones who have disappeared or have been killed under GMA’s administration, the desire to punish GMA may be overwhelming. To those who seek to hold GMA accountable, lex talionis the Old Testament’s “an eye for an eye” will most certainly be seductive. How easy it would be perhaps to sate this thirst for vengeance by arresting her, giving her a “swift” trial (because if we provide her the usual constitutional and legal protections given to an ordinary accused, the trial, and its subsequent appeals, would drag on for years and years) and finally punishing her in a publicly humiliating fashion. For the mob, perhaps stoning might be a fitting punishment for someone so universally reviled. However, we must stand firm against vengeance’s seduction because our aim is not for retribution but rather for genuine justice.
In fact, the true test of our system of justice is not how well we treat (“treatment” referring to the protections and legal mechanisms provided for someone accused of an offense) the people we like but rather how well we treat those we hate. Recall how the so-called “Miranda Rights” the warning that is required to be given by police authorities in the United States to criminal suspects under a custodial situation informing them of their constitutional rights was first recognized as a protection given to Ernesto Miranda, who was a rapist and kidnapper. This is the reason why the classic icon of justice, the mistress holding the scale and sword, is blindfolded: so that she will dispense justice evenly.
Retribution and justice, while often used interchangeably, are totally different concepts. Retribution is based on a crude conception of what is just. Retribution is merely crass arithmetic, hence the “eye for an eye” and “tooth for a tooth” philosophy. Retribution, from the Latin retribuere, is, literally, “pay back.” However, not only is retribution a pale imitation of justice under a Rule of Law, it also cheapens those who mete out that kind of justice. The actions that must be filed against GMA, the process of trial, and the penalties that must be meted out must result not from a reckless desire for punishment but rather out of a desire to fortify our legal institutions, strengthen the Rule of Law, and to provide precedent for future generations that even the most powerful and well-connected cannot escape the long arm of the law.
As painful as this may sound to many who have been mistreated (perhaps this is too soft a term) and duped by GMA and her minions, we must, nonetheless, give the full measure of justice to them. “Justice must be seen to be done in order to be done.” Accordingly, the whole gamut of constitutional protections afforded to all citizens such, as due process, the right against self-incrimination, confrontational rights, among others, must also be fully accorded to GMA and her alleged conspirators. Again, we cannot have a witch hunt; even if for some of the offenses such as the bribing (given in a little gift bag in Malacañang) of congressional and other political leaders to stave off the impeachment complaint against her in 2007 the evidence is apparent. Indeed, we cannot have shortcuts in the legal process not only because it will allow her lawyers to raise constitutional violations on appeal but, more importantly, because by doing so we will act as she did during her administration: biased against her political enemies, vindictive, and unjust.
Let us give her the justice that she failed to give the Filipino people and show her and her conspirators that we don’t only pay lip service to the Constitution and that we respect the Rule of Law. In Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons, Will Roper suggests to St. Thomas More that it might be necessary to break the law in order to capture and punish evildoers. More replies, “And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? (He leaves him) this country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast man’s laws, not God’s and if you cut them down and you’re just the man to do it d’you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?”
St. Thomas More admonishes us that, in our quest for justice, we must not forget to act justly and respect the law because if we forget, then we, ourselves, shall reap the whirlwind.