Do most people believe GMA is ‘beholden’

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has no business telling the Senate what to do. Any student who’s taken Philippine Government, or any course on the Constitution and Political Science could have told her that. Since GMA is supposed to be an intelligent, even bright individual with a genuine Ph.D., I wonder why she erred on the meaning of "separation of powers" and the existence of a co-equal legislature and a judiciary.

The Palace, as it does so often, can now be expected to backpedal on the announcement of Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao that, while the President acknowledges the Senate’s prerogatives, she believes it "should pursue" its inquiry on the allegations of crime leveled at Senator (former Police General) Panfilo Lacson and the Estrada administration.

Such Presidential "advice" is uncalled for. It oversteps the line. Has GMA acquired a Napoleonic complex and the belief that hers is an "imperial" Presidency? There are many other areas in which the Chief Executive can and must impose her inflexible will and demonstrate that she has muscle, not wishbone – such as in the non-stop fight against crime and drug trafficking, and, as Commander-in-Chief, against Communist and Moro rebellion. But to bully the Senate? She’s got enough on her plate. Let her attend to her duties first.

In any event, the Senate never had a choice. The Senate must continue its "inquiry", much as it has turned into an embarrassing debacle. In fact, the accused Senator Lacson himself has insisted that the Senate go on with probing him. He has stated that his accusers (Corpus, Mawanay, Devnani, and some more "surprise witnesses" Crusader Victor Corpus has indicated will be sprung) be given the opportunity to present their "evidence", but, the ex-General asserted, they should also substantiate them. Again, Lacson had no choice either but to urge that the Senators proceed. If he had welcomed a . . . well, "ceasefire", the public would have jumped to the conclusion that he was guilty.

And so, the Senate is caught between a rock and a hard place. That body could not have avoided launching an inquiry into one of its own, nor can it afford to abort one. As for ISAFP Chief, Col. Corpus, and the accusing bunch, they have gotten themselves a forum in which to air and disseminate their "charges" against Lacson and his former "boss", Erap. They can indulge in trial by publicity to their hearts’ delight.

The Senators can only act out their parts, helplessly – damned if they do, and damned if they don’t. They can’t exonerate Lacson, for instance, neither can they convict him. Such an inquiry is, as always in law, intended to be "in aid of legislation." What can our solons do? Legislate Lacson into prison? Corpus and his merry men (and "Rosebud", too) will, in the end. still have to go to court.

As for the KOMPIL and Civil Society militants, they’re yelling that the rule of law and our courts can’t be trusted. I can only say, Sanamagan! All that self-righteousness can give you a hernia.

No wonder the self-righteous Torquemadas of the Spanish Inquisition sent so many hapless "heretics" to the rack and eventually to the stake. (They also wanted to confiscate, perhaps, the wealth and properties of their Jewish or Ladino victims.) All in the Name of God and the Holy Office, naturally. In the 15th century the unfortunate monk Girolamo Savonarola was seized for speaking out on church reform and insulting Pope Alexander VI, and condemned to be burned on a cross by two Apostolic Commissioners appointed by the Pope. His executors self-righteously declared they were following the dictates of God and justice.

The Polish astronomer and priest Nicolaus Copernicus in the 16th century was warned against his "heresy" that the earth and other planets revolved around the sun (and no vice-versa). The Vatican and those who condemned and silenced him, temporarily, sincerely believed they were right and just, and Copernicus was grievously in error. The great Italian astronomer and experimental philosopher Galileo Galilei, of the 17th century, outraged Rome and drew ecclesiastical censure for his famous treatise Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo, wildly applauded throughout Europe, which upheld the Copernican system and ran afoul of the Papal edict passed 16 years earlier. Galileo was summoned to Rome, threatened with punishment by the Inquisition, and warned that contrary to his preachings the sun is immovable and he was wrong to heretically insist that the earth had a diurnal motion of rotation. He was sentenced to do severe penance in a document signed by seven Cardinals. According to legend, Galileo, after reciting the prescribed formula of abjuration, couldn’t resist exclaiming, "Eppur si muove!" (And yet, it moves!)

I shudder at the self-righteous. One of them wrote in a letter to us, ". . . In the end, it is not justice and the rule of law per se that are of paramount importance; it is what is just."

And wow! Who determines what is just? There are those in Ilocos Sur, I can state from personal experience, who gunned down their enemies because they were confident, really, that what they were doing was "just". Those who resorted to gun-law in such instances believed that the courts could not be trusted. There’s a name for it in Latin, Lex talionis. Remember? An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

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Lacson, Erap et al. might indeed be guilty of the blackest crimes and sins. But if military intelligence officers (sometimes called an oxymoron) and citizens brush aside the legal niceties and shoot them out of court (by mouth or bullet), then our entire society could become a shooting gallery, with people name-calling and condemning each other in the streets and in the media.

In 1970, this writer participated in an Asian Press Forum in Bali, Indonesia. When the presiding chairman asked each delegation in turn an identical question, different answers were given. When asked what would happen if somebody stood in the middle of the street in Jakarta and cried out: "Down with President Sukarno!" or "Hang Sukarno!" (Gantung Bung Karno!), the Indonesians replied: "He would be arrested for insulting and threatening the President!"

If anybody stood in the middle of the street in Metro Manila and cried out, "Down with Marcos!" and "Oust Marcos!", the Filipino journalists chorused when their turn came, he would be arrested, too, – "for obstructing traffic."

How wrong we were. In September 1972, all of us journalists and publishers who had attended that forum were in prison. And not for obstructing traffic.

Beware of those who urge you to fight in a cause which is "just", and pledge that they will be right behind you. When I was arrested at 2 o’clock in the morning, I looked behind me – and there was nobody there.

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President Arroyo was too hasty in absolving the military men concerned of any connivance with the kidnap gang, the Abu Sayyaf. For that matter, her spokesman Secretary Tiglao had already absolved the military weeks ago. The Commander-in-Chief might have suspended judgment, at least, until the House and Senate defense committees – still conducting an inquiry (in aid of legislation? Yes, the budget) – completed their probe. Common courtesy should have dictated that.

Yesterday, the ANC News Channel of ABS-CBN conducted a poll of its viewers. I don’t know the parameters of that survey, or how it was conducted, but the TV Channel announced, in response to the query, "Is GMA beholden to the military?", that only 25 percent said "No" and an overwhelming 75 percent answered, "Yes."

For this reason, all those whispers about an impending "coup" sound hollow. Why should the armed forces overthrow President Arroyo when, according to public perception, she already dances to their tune? This perception may be grossly unfair but it appears many Filipinos believe that GMA feels indebted to the armed forces for having "helped" eject Estrada and for putting her in the driver’s seat.

Abroad, alas, when I met fellow publishers and editors at our IPI World Congress in New Delhi last March, most of them cheerfully believed that La Gloria had been elevated to the Presidency by a military coup d’etat (in Bahasa a Kudeta) given the blessings of the Supreme Court.

Now, Basilan Governor Wahab Akbar is being alleged by witnesses to have taken part in ransom payments to the Abu Sayyaf. Once more with feeling, Sanamagan. The accusation may be untrue, but if Akbar indeed has been playing footsie with the Abu bandits, uh.. rebels, and some of our officers have been playing ball as well, this may explain why we can’t seem to catch and "destroy" the elusive Abus and rescue their captives.

Estrada ordered the armed forces and police, finally exasperated with their cheek (and their runaway ransom collection), to "crush" the Abu Sayyaf.

President Arroyo, in turn, ordered the AFP and PNP to "crush" the Abu Sayyaf. The word she used was "pupulbusin" or grind them to powder. Neither President succeeded. The Abus — instead of being crushed — are still very much a headache, and dragging their hostages around, too. Opposition Senator Ed Angara is not entirely right to roundly assail the proposed budget for giving too much money to the armed forces, and too little for education. Sure, education, in normal times, ought to be our top priority. But the military needs logistics, too, in this period of rebellion coupled with rampant hostage-taking — provided this money is put to proper use, and not for feather-bedding and "conversion" scams (ghost-deliveries).

Are some soldiers (and officers) selling weapons to the Abus and other Muslim rebels? But, of course. Avarice sometimes – dare I say often? – overcomes loyalty, discipline and love of country.

Take the United States, which is the admired "land of the free and the home of the brave." Two very high ranking officers of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were caught, after years of betraying secrets including the identities of ill-starred American agents in the field, blatantly spying for the Soviet Union and later the Russian Federation.

During the 1968 "Tet" offensive, whenever we crashed into a Communist Viet Cong hideout, like that now-renowned tourist attraction, the kilometers of Cu Chi tunnels burrowing partly under an American base, we discovered US "Aid" boxes of medicine, hospital supplies, and other US military supplies and equipment, which could only have come from some American quartermaster depot, or even straight from the ship that had delivered them, or from the ARVN (the army of South Vietnam). War may be hell, but for some it’s profitable.

There’s no way, sad to say, that we can legislate loyalty and patriotism. In a sense, Angara is correct: We must educate our people. We must train them from childhood in fealty to God and country, and the other important lessons of the heart.