Despite the political crisis and surveys to the contrary, I feel that the pulse of the nation still beats for the eventual survival and stabilization of the present government – if it can expeditiously redeem the credibility it has admittedly lost due to seemingly plausible, double barreled exposés involving election fraud as evidenced by a tape recorded conversation of the President with a Comelec official, and the jueteng payola involving the first family as attested by witnesses. Regaining such credibility involves a search for the truth behind these exposés.
The Catholic Bishops themselves in their Pastoral Letter have advised the President to give a credible account and explanation.
Unfortunately all signs so far show that instead of unearthing the truth, the people in the Palace are more interested and are concentrating their efforts only towards saving the Malacañang occupant just as the opposition strives so hard to bring her down. As the opposition belatedly parade witnesses some of whom have hidden acrobatic skills or hearsay testimonies, the Palace functionaries merely react by uncovering the shadowy pasts of the witnesses or exploiting their sudden turn-around and profuse expression of apology for implicating the President. Relying on such witnesses does not help at all in regaining the lost credibility.
Retracting witnesses are the most unreliable precisely because of their conflicting statements. A later statement contradicting an earlier declaration should not be readily accepted as true and correct. The first statement may even be more reliable considering the generally accepted notion that pressures usually accompany its retraction.
Besides, the Palace think-tank should take note that the two somersaulting witnesses merely apologized to the President and exposed an opposition conspiracy. They did not actually declare that their earlier statements are false. Claiming that the jueteng payola is not a dead issue by the use of these witnesses may even be to their disadvantage.
A missing Garcillano does not also help the cause of the Palace in regaining credibility. With the admission of the President’s lawyer that the President spoke to Garcillano during the election period last year to protect her votes and the detailed narration of Michaelangelo Zuce on Garcillano’s role, the former election commissioner can obviously unravel the many mysteries surrounding the tapes. His prolonged absence raises a lot of ugly speculations most of which are more damaging and detrimental to the President’s efforts to win back the people’s faith and confidence.
A lot of people are beginning to entertain the thought that the government with all its resources can not locate him only because the government itself does not want him to surface.
Some alarming developments in the impeachment process which the President herself asked for also indicate that it will not be believable and that the truth may not come out of it. With the suspension of the first impeachment hearing and the technical gauntlets thrown along the way, the possibility that the impeachment complaint will be thrown out by tyranny of numbers looms large. Our Honorable Congressmen should be reminded that their function is merely to determine whether there is probable cause to impeach the President, not to determine whether she has committed an impeachable offense. They should know that the ends of justice and the interest of truth would be served better when cases are determined, not on mere technicality or some procedural nicety, but on the merits – after all the parties are given full opportunity to ventilate their causes and defenses (Paras vs. Baldado 354 SCRA 141). If they throw out the complaint on mere technicality, then the whole truth will not come out and the present political turmoil will not have a credible resolution.
I hope our political leaders take the foregoing comments as a friendly although unsolicited advice from a concerned citizen longing to see the end of the people’s sufferings.