The former president must have a cabal

In the surge of reported cases filed before different tribunals, the name of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is linked. Either she is made the respondent herself or the accusations are directed against leading officials in her administration. But, in either case, we seem somehow to overlook something – the participation of some people.

 Let us consider that, apparently, at the bottom of these charges is the common indictment of graft and corruption. If we, for example, speak of the so-called fertilizer scam, we refer to the alleged misuse of public fund to purchase fertilizers. What made it an obvious case of graft was the revelation that the fertilizers, in millions of pesos, were given to leaders whose territorial areas, like cities, would have no use for them. We do not even have to take into account the report of the committee led by former Sen. Ramon Magsaysay, Jr., that, in cases where there were fertilizers actually delivered, they were purchased at atrocious prices!

 If we, in another instance, train our sights on the alleged plunder of the Road Users Tax, we recall the allegation that these taxes were funneled into the payment of street cleaners hired sometime in December 2003 up to June of 2004. We were told that such an expense was not within the contemplation of the law exacting taxes on road users. The statute mandated that the fund earned from such imposition could only be used for specific purposes but the enumeration did not include the payment of street cleaners. Differently said, the expense, in that characterization of salaries of sweepers within the few months leading to the 2004 election, was unlawful.

 These two alleged cases of graft and corruption were parts of the articles of impeachment filed against then sitting president, now Congresswoman Arroyo. They were only two of the several. The news accounts reported that each part of the impeachment complaint, specially these two, was alleged with sufficient definiteness that any ordinary citizen of this country could understand. I thought then that the requirement of sufficiency of form and substance was complied with that Congress would send the indictment to Senate for reception of evidence.

 But what happened? To my private indignation, several representatives stopped the articles of impeachment dead on its track. Congressmen, believed to be allied with Malacañang, prevented the happening of the next logical incident - the actual hearing of the case. By declaring that the complaint lacked sufficiency and substance, they, in a manner of speaking, cleared the former president of all allegations of graft. They could have rifled the case to Senate and allowed a full-blown trial. Unfortunately, their sheer number clamped down and suppressed the reason of the few legislators who wanted to see the evidence presented before the nation.

 Now, let us fast forward to the present so that we can prepare for the future. Some of the accusations against the former president that are now lodged in different tribunals involve the same issues that were contained in the impeachment articles. In the language of legal procedure, they are in the investigation stage. Personally, I believe they will hurdle this stage and so I expect that these charges will be blown wide open for all of us to see.

 But, that is not the point of this article today. I refer to the liability of the congressmen who prevented the impeachment proceeding to go thru its logical conclusion. They should be held answerable for some kind of a cover up. I listened to the nominal voting then and I was aghast to hear how callous they were. But, I could only squirm on my seat hoping that someday, retribution, in some form, any form, would come.

If appropriate charges against the former president should proceed, we shall finally see the truth. She can either be convicted or pronounced innocent. But if the ex-leader would be found to have acted corruptly, she was not alone. She did it with a cabal. Her protectors were the congressmen, who, I suggest to prosecutors, should be included in the charge sheets. At the very least, they, for letting the former leader escape impeachment, were guilty as accessories. In listing them as co-accused with the former president, we give them chance to defend their act. Having achieved that, we can have a complete closure of these cases.