No law anymore - Gotcha

Admit it. Those who hate Joseph Estrada so much must have felt glee with news of a coup d'etat in the offing. They must have snickered when AFP intelligence chief Jose Calimlim said many groups want to assassinate the President, then asked each other, "Is he that unpopular?" When NICA head Cesar Fortuno revealed that a communist stalker was moving in for the kill, they must have exclaimed, "Ang tagal naman!"

Ill-wishers must be justifying to themselves that Estrada deserves it. After all, he also wishes them evil, calling them destabilizers and thus practically siccing administration goons on them. Besides, they're telling themselves, he must be stopped before he does the nation any more harm.

But that's just it. Estrada-bashers are so impatient to see his day of chastisement that they want hell to break loose here and now. For his part, Estrada is so riled with critics that he'd rather see them dead than prove them wrong. Both sides do not wish the law to take over anymore because they see futility in the exercise. To begin with, they see no one who knows how, like lawyers, seeking to uphold the law anyway. So why bother?

It took a stunned Integrated Bar a week to denounce an appellate justice's order for SEC to not charge stock manipulators in court. While the action is reassuring for Estrada's foes, they still wonder why no lawyer-congressman has filed charges against Estrada himself for meddling with SEC investigations through four phone calls. That culpable violation of the Constitution by the chief executive could have emboldened the justice to bend the rules on restraining orders in his branch of government.

Observance of law must be by example, as its enforcement must set an example. When leaders show fear of the law, followers emulate them. When the law's harsh consequences are allowed to reign, everyone strives not to run afoul of it.

Yet law is implemented on expediency, not on exigency. Estrada thought it popular to stop all prison executions on Catholic advisers' reasoning that 2000 is a jubilee year, as if it comes only once in a lifetime and not every 25 years, as if Catholicism is the basis of law.

Whether that action will further alienate Muslims from government is anybody's guess. But it sends the message to citizens and lower officials that law can be set aside after all.

Everybody has been setting it aside, in fact. Legislators and judges, policemen and local officials, the privileged and the ordinary folk ignore the law because it's hard to obey and enforce, it's futile to cry out yet easier to just live and let live without it. That's why cities are losing sidewalks to illegal vendors, and towns are forfeiting rustic zones to pollutive factories. That's why people let their leaders steal from infrastructure works, so long as they get a share of the loot in the form of basketballs, a little cash for weddings or wakes, or a seat at the thief's table during fiestas. That's why there's traffic, the air and rivers are dirty, the neighbor doesn't care if his dog's barking keeps everyone awake all night.

The utter disregard of the law from top to bottom of society is the reason for poverty and miserable surroundings, the helplessness and hopelessness. Everybody loathes what's going on. Yet when someone steps forward to complain, his peers shout him down as a trouble-maker, a fool, a destabilzer of set -- if wrong -- ways.

Everybody's fond of quoting Teddy Roosevelt: "No man is above the law and no man is below it, nor do we ask any man's permission when we require him to obey it." But they do so only for rhetoric. It's easier to disobey the law anyway.

Taiwan aviation officials don't want to admit it, but China Airlines is frantic to resume flights to Manila so it can again poach passengers on RP-US routes. Poaching accounts for 50-80 percent of its passengers.

Philippine Airlines saw a 30-percent rise in its Manila-California volume since the RP-Taiwan air talks ran aground. It should be happy, but it is also subsidizing low rates for Filipino workers flying to and from Taiwan via Hong Kong. That's why it also wants RP-Taiwan direct flights resumed-but with stricter rules against poaching.

INTERACTION. Ramon Maglalang, csi.com: You and Boo Chanco hit the nail on the head on the same topic -- cellphone subscriber problems -- on the same day (Gotcha, 27 Mar. 2000). We put up with lousy service, but what is unforgivable is having to pay for aberrations in the system. Try calling Smart from a PLDT landline and let it ring once, PLDT will charge you the standard P9.69 or, if unlucky like I am, P15.19. In case of dropped calls, instead of finishing a conversation in a minute, you have to dial for another minute -- and incur extra charges.

They should have an automatic sensor for dropped calls that shows less than a minute of use, followed by dialing of the same number. Then, Ramon, let's hope they find it in their heart not to charge extra.

Lorenzo O., hotmail: Nene Pimentel fought Marcos (Gotcha, 25 Mar. 2000). Going nowhere afterwards, he must have thought, if you can't beat them...

Jay Entruda, Iowa: Our senator from Mindanao, whom I once voted for vice president, sees nothing wrong with the First Family cornering PCSO funds? Or the distribution of PCSO ambulances bearing Jinggoy's name? Sayang siya.

He says watch him, Jay, Lorenzo. I say, what for?

JHGR, pinoymail.com: Yes, those GIs did wrong in beating up a cabbie (Gotcha, 15 Mar. 2000), but why is there no mention of the fact that he didn't use his meter?

It won't make for good propaganda, JHGR, that's why.

A.F. de Guzman, San Miguel, Bulacan: Erap's walang-kamaganak-walang-kaibigan promise applies only to his personal feelings, not to governing or cronyism. Laquian was his friend, but look what happened to him.

Thank you, Salve Priala, Joe Pascual, Benjamin Garcia, Mitch Ocampo, Tom Cruz. Mar Tajon, Royco Hautea, Benjie Alvarez, Jaxx Greg, Daniel Moraga.

YOUR BODY. We've felt this since our teens, but never thought we'd live long enough to read a medical verification: Risk of a teen-age driver dying in a car crash increases when other young people ride along, says a study in the latest issue of Journal of the American Medical Association.

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