EDITORIAL – Beyond press conferences

Another day, another witness. This time it’s Michaelangelo Zuce, who claimed yesterday that when he was a Malacañang aide, he witnessed a payoff to officials of the Commission on Elections in the presence of President Arroyo at her family home in La Vista. The payoff, made before the general elections in May 2004, was meant to rig the voting in favor of the President, Zuce alleged.

Zuce was accompanied to a press conference yesterday by Liwayway Vinzons Chato, a former revenue commissioner who currently lawyers for the controversial Philippine International Air Terminals Co. as well as former National Bureau of Investigation deputy director Samuel Ong. Unlike Ong, Zuce has no tapes of wiretapped conversations or video footage taken surreptitiously of the purported payoff at La Vista.

Law-abiding Filipinos appreciate efforts to expose wrongdoing in government. At some point in the near future, however, all the accusations and denials that have been flying around for the past two months will have to go beyond press statements and be subjected to the test of law. Ong’s allegations have not been verified, and no one has bothered to have his so-called master tapes authenticated. Now here comes another individual with a story to tell, over a year after the purported event took place. Malacañang dismissed Zuce as a paid witness and a nobody; even the official he claims to have worked for claims to have no recollection of Zuce.

Everyone in this scandal is pursuing a personal agenda, which makes it even more important to subject all charges and counter-charges to the test of law. But because most of the accusers are too lazy to file a formal complaint, Malacañang is responding to what it describes as a presidential trial by publicity with its own media offensive. This is hardly the way to determine the truth and resolve a controversy.

If national interest is truly what Zuce and company have in mind, they should bring their case to court, or add it to the impeachment complaint if there’s still time for another amendment. They’ve talked to the press, they’ve had their photo op, and Malacañang has responded. If this story has legs to stand on, let’s see the formal complaint.