EDITORIAL - The impeachment, one year after

Yesterday marked the first year since Manuel Villar Jr. banged the gavel at the House of Representatives, effectively impeaching then President Joseph Estrada. The unprecedented move was followed by a Senate investigation that saw a parade of witnesses testifying about corruption in the highest places in the Estrada administration. When Estrada’s allies blocked the presen-tation of crucial evidence, prosecutors walked out and people took to the streets to demand an end to a regime that had been under fire for corruption and incompetence.

EDSA Dos marked the first time that a mass uprising was staged in this country chiefly against corruption. Has the objective been achieved? Estrada and his son are detained without bail, facing formal charges for the capital offense of plunder – another first in this country. Estrada’s former police chief, now a senator, is under investigation for allegedly laundering drug money, and may soon face revived charges of multiple murder. So far there have been no accusations of cronyism hurled against the Arroyo administration.

The image of a former president being held without bail should send a strong message that Filipinos have had enough of corruption and are ready to do something about it. The court case, however, has been interminably delayed. Eradicating corruption in this country will also take more than ousting one president. Corruption has been around since the Spanish period, persisting during the American occupation and post-war reconstruction. The "conjugal dictatorship" of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos saw public coffers being drained, but so far, none of the Marcos heirs has been convicted of any crime involving ill-gotten wealth.

Corruption is a way of life in the Philippine bureaucracy. You need to fork out grease money to get papers, from land titles to death certificates, processed quickly. You can bring in any type of contraband if you make the right Customs official an offer he can’t refuse. Law enforcers have been accused of extortion and corruption so often that unless a ranking officer or big money is involved, stories of graft in the national police are no longer considered news. Since Estrada’s impeachment last year, significant steps have been made to deal with corruption, but there’s still a lot of work ahead.