Is it to prove his innocence in the Kuratong Baleleng massacre? I hardly think so. The record shows Lacson has deftly maneuvered to stall the case, knife it to death, resort to every kind of legal delay possible. The reports persist that families of the slain Kuratong gunmen had been bought handsomely to lay off and so were witnesses to the slay. That being the case, it was said, the regional trial court ruled there was not enough evidence to arraign him. That was dandy. It should have interred the case once and for all. Except that the Supreme Court determined the case could be revived.
Small wonder that the High Court is now held in high esteem by a public that would now seek the abolition of Congress for collective misdeed, non-performance, piracy on the high seas, and plunder on God’s earth.
But there was another thing about the Kuratong massacre that gave it a lurid and certainly criminal dimension. A police contingent, identified by media as the men of Lacson, raided the domicile of Wilson Soronda, Kuratong supremo. They killed Soronda on the eve of the massacre, rifled his moneybags – the loot from various bank robberies – and carted the money away. The estimate was in the tens of millions in dollars, other foreign currencies, and pesos. Where did the money go? Until today, nobody knows, nobody will talk, and the Department of Justice deserves an Oscar for superb imitation of the three monkeys. No hear, no talk, no see.
The grapevine then buzzed with rumors the Kuratong loot had been deposited in a Hongkong bank or banks. Under whose name? Shhhh.
Well, Mr. Lacson has made his decision, and we’ll see what happens. He announced he would run under the flag of the United Opposition, expecting probably he would have the blessing of former President Joseph Estrada. Erap Estrada’s blessing would have meant something immediately after his arrest when his beloved masa rose in high dungeon. There were even reports a commando team would rescue Erap from jail.
But today, Erap is history. He hardly gets into print anymore. He is a Pleistocene Age political fossil, once a political giant, now a broken-down, dilapidated political pygmy bereft of his mistresses, his many mansions, his dolce vita, his plethora of bodyguards. Even his new batch of lawyers talk like zombies, painfully aware only a miracle can save him from conviction. So I don’t really know where Mr. Lacson will get the massive mass of votes he needs to be president.
On the other hand, we miss the signals in the oft-repeated bandying of Eduardo (Danding) Cojuangco’s name for the presidency. Is he running or isn’t he? If he or his condotierre are testing the waters, they’ll easily find out the waters are tepid. I constantly hear all that tinsel and folderol that Danding is the man who can instil discipline into the citizenry, a businessman who has restored order in San Miguel, enabled it to earn zillions in profit, an expert in agriculture to boot. A man of castiron.
Well, in my book, and many others’ books, Danding is also history.
He belongs to the past, in this case the Marcos past. Can anyone really forget that past? It was when the lights twinkled only in Malacañang, in the words of the late Speaker Jose Laurel, while the rest of the country cowered in the dark. The looting was massive and easily detectable. The loot poured only into Malacañang, into His and Hers, into the pockets and bank accounts of the dictator’s favorite cronies. Today the loot pours into many holes. More democratic, hein?
Danding Cojuangco is also into a lot of cross-hairs. He has always been on psychological target because of the Malacañang-ordered assassination of Ninoy Aquino. During the vigil in the Aquino family house in Times’ street, the cathedral quiet was shattered when a university professor rose and accused Imelda, General Fabian Ver and Danding Cojuangco of having plotted the assassination. Did he really know what he was talking about? The professor has migrated to America.
Mr. Cojuangco will certainly have the nation in his debt if he confesses everything he knows about Ninoy’s murder. He knows, of course, he knows. He was the favorite crony of the dictator, virtually a resident of Malacañang during those dreadful days, the only one, many swore at the time, who could stare Kokoy Romualdez balefully in the eye and tell him to shut up. And git.
And then again, the Coco Levy scandal. When I hosted Firing Line and had former Vice President Emmanuel Pelaez as my guest, Manny had no hesitation pointing to Danding Cojuangco as the "main culprit" who he said victimized thousands of poor coconut farmers. Mr. Pelaez even described the coco levy heist as the "biggest theft of all time" in this country. Mr. Cojuangco did not riposte and of course subsequently turned down an invitation to appear in Firing Line to answer Mr. Pelaez’s charges.
Now, you tell me.
Out of more than 80 million Filipinos, are the Messrs. Lacson and Cojuangco really, honestly two of the chosen few hand-picked by the powers-that-be as the most qualified to be the next president of the Republic? If they are, then I fear for the nation’s future. For their records are blemished with charges as long as both your arms and legs. It is possible the two may have already repented and repined during those so-called trunk-wheel moments when man is left alone with his God. If so, the two owe it to us to apologize publicly, and pledge that henceforth the only road they travel is Damascus during which they saw "the vision". If so, they are men.
As Sam Foss’s "A Prayer" intones: "Give us men whom the lust of office does not kill; men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; men who possess opinions and a will; men who have honor, men who will not lie."
As it is, in my book, there is only one such man in this Select Circle of presidential aspirants who is close to fitting the description – Raul Roco. Fortunately, he leads in all the surveys.
What was wrong with that? A lot of Western journalists covering the war are saying the same thing, except that their name is not Peter Arnett. The man built his fame and credibility in Vietnam where, as a young reporter, he cheated death several times. His dispatches had that extra sparkle in that he exposed the lies and chicanery of America’s top generals who insisted the invading US army was winning the war. The truth, and this was admitted by ex-Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara afterwards, was that the Vietcong had many times pummeled American soldiery. The same thing: The fierce and relentless counter-force of the Vietcong had shocked the US government.
Peter Arnett was the CNN correspondent you saw in Baghdad, scooping the world on the US aerial bombardment of the Iraqi capital as the Gulf War exploded in 1991. He interviewed Saddam Hussein and together with Bernard Shaw, another CNN immortal, risked death several times to cover the Gulf War as fully and expeditiously as they could. That was great broadcast journalism worthy of its pioneer, the inimitable Edward Murrow.
They may have sacked Peter Arnett, but they cannot silence media, particularly the rebel factions of American media. As in Vietnam, they are getting wise to the hokum peddled by the White House, namely George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, that the war in Iraq is on plan, on course, on the road to easy victory. But they are bothered because many elements of American media are bitching they are told only what the Central Command wants them to know. Civilian casualties in Baghdad mount by the day because of relentless bombing by B-1, B-2 and B-21 heavy bombers. But CentCom does not release any figures on casualties for either side.
As we said in a previous column, the Iraqis are fighting as they have never fought in their life. Why? Because, home, hearth and homeland are at stake. It is no longer whether Saddam is a tyrant. Homeland is sacred.