EDITORIAL - Raping democracy in the name of democracy is rape

Only God, sitting in judgment in Heaven, knows who Jovito Palparan truly is. Back here on earth, all of us can only presume to know the man. That he has been called everything in the book and yet has not been convicted of any crime only underscores that presumptiveness.

Oh yes, the justice system is not perfect, and can even be manipulated to favor some, such as Palparan, who are extremely lucky to have powerful patrons. But pray tell, who among us have not benefitted, at one time or another, from such flaws in the system?

If we invoke God's dictum that only he who is sinless can cast the first stone, then perhaps that is the only time we can truly be silenced. But God is smart. He gave us free will so we can either save or incriminate ourselves without getting His hands soiled in the process.

So let us stop this stinking hypocrisy, this holier-than-thou rigmarole. The very same people who are employing all sorts of libel to malign Palparan are the very same people who bleed instantly at the slightest prick to their dubious dignities.

This is not in defense of Palparan because, as the innuendoes against him suggest, he is extremely capable of defending himself. Instead this is simply an appeal intended to stop forcing all right-thinking Filipinos from puking, from violently throwing up.

Palparan is Congress-bound because of the same system that elevated the likes of Satur Ocampo to the same institution. If Ocampo, an official of a communist front organization, now enjoys the title Honorable despite atrocities by his comrades, why not a defender of the state?

Killer, murderer, kidnapper -- they all chorus against Palparan, convicting him without due process, and seeking to prevent his assumption of office, which he duly secured by popular mandate. Aren't these running counter to the very same democracy they pretend to espouse?

How can these people invoke the name of democracy when, by their very words and deeds, they are in fact making a mockery out of it? This duplicity is the very reason why their years of struggle never succeeded, except to remain in the fringes as a source of livelihood.