About face!
The powers of a president in a system of government like ours are vast. Dean Vicente Sinco, an eminent authority on Constitutional Law, commenting on the 1934 Philippine Constitution, the basic structure of which holds true until today, said that “no other single official of the Philippine government represents such concentration of powers than the president.”
Some of the powers of the president may, in truth, be exceeded while others may indubitably be labeled immoral but nonetheless, they still pass legalese rigors.
Let’s take two examples, very well etched in the pages of our history, to illustrate our point. First, there was Proclamation 1081 of the late Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos of
The second instance was the exercise by Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of her executive clemency in pardoning former Pres. Joseph Ejercito Estrada. I could understand the personal frustration of Atty. Dennis Villa-Ignacio, the man who was at the vortex of the valiant effort to secure the conviction of the past president. Who knows how much pressures or threats he was subjected to in the course of the trial. Then, there was the huge amount of money spent in the proceedings.
But, it was well within the constitutional powers of Pres. Arroyo to pardon the convicted former chief executive. She could do it the moment the decision became final. When the president forgave her predecessor, she released him of the punishment and blotted the existence of his guilt so that in the eyes of the law Estrada became as innocent as if he never committed the offense of plunder at all.
I recall these two incidents of our political history in the light of the conviction of some of the erstwhile idealistic leaders of the Magdalo, the group who allegedly seized the plush residential building called Oakwood in the nation’s financial center. The incident took place in 2003 yet when men, in full battle regalia, as a desperate act to call the attention of the public and our leaders to the massive corruption in the land staged a derring-do. Their pronouncements reverberated with nationalism and oh, believe me their sense of idealism made me feel there was still hope for my children in this country.
At the initial stages of the proceedings against them, these Magdalo leaders proved real men of unwavering principle and rare courage. Even if faced with the dark prospects of losing their privileges as eminent graduates of the Philippine Military Academy, they were unequivocal in their search for reforms. Then, just as suddenly as their bold act that thrust them to public scrutiny, they, amidst rumors of some deals with Malacañang, seemed to capitulate.
“About face!” a military command they are most familiar with applied to them with disturbing effect. I like to believe that before they launched their assault into the established order of corruption, they knew they were arrayed against an impregnable garrison. They must have hoped for the best but as in actual combats, they must have equally expected for the worst.
The complete turn around of some of them could not have been enforced by the specter of going in the slammer for a long time. It could logically be sweetened only by promises of unknown rewards Malacañang could offer. Considering the conscious effort of the palace to deny that deals were made, I could only believe that the reverse was true because as the pattern showed whatever the president said, the complete opposite happened. This perception of mine could not be difficult to acknowledge simply because the president has, at her disposal, vast powers, including to tell half-truths to the people. Well, whatever these concessions might be, these guys deserve our collective national pity more than our personal scorn.
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