Sweet, bitter and tasteless

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
10/15/2010



Today I prefer to start with the sweet than the bitter because a homecoming to freedom is a joy beyond compare. I have been behind bars before and know of its oppressiveness. Last time I was “in,” I was a fellow detainee of the civilian and military protestors of the Manila Peninsula standoff. I was released after only five days, though I thought I would stay for years.

I left behind young courageous military officers who had started their protests way back in 2003 at Oakwood against the corruption and illegality of the former regime. When the Manila Pen standoff took place in 2007, we were carted off to jail altogether. Three years later, all were released except one, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV. For those he has inspired with his steadfast principles, the political amnesty signed for him a few days ago can only be the sweetest news in quite a long time.

There is, however, a slightly bitter aftertaste when one considers that this amnesty should not have been needed at all if only all the legalistic crap that stood in the way of immediate freedom for those that stood up to the former regime was never taken seriously.

The bitter aftertaste even becomes a very bitter sense of indignation when one recalls the history of the past 10 years, beginning with the brazen subversion of the nation’s Basic Law by a motley group of conspirators from the Legislature, the Judiciary, the military and police, the Catholic Church, and the evil “civil society,” with foreign elements that deposed a duly-constituted government to install a regime of their own of unprecedented corruption, oppression, and usurpation of power.

Bitterness then almost turns to nausea when one sees that not one of the conspirators has been punished as most are even in the perches of power today.

More bitter irony in that Gloria Arroyo, who now sits in the legislature, participates in crafting laws, and disposes national budgets after insulting the whole nation with her lies, from the Impsa scam to the “Hello Garci” cheating, down to the ZTE-NBN scandal; while Aquino III assures her impunity by creating a mock investigative commission and placing at its helm her chief cohort in the 2001 Edsa II abomination.

Irony overflows as Joker Arroyo continues to throw inane arguments to frustrate justice for Trillanes, who is absolutely free of scandal, while he still has not answered charges of misuse of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office funds in the 2001 elections, as well as his illegal walkout in the impeachment hearings that denied President Estrada his day in court.

Irony never ends as the Lord of all Lords Chavit Singson, Edsa II rogues Ebdane, Esperon et al. still lord it over, with the list of the vile ruling in style becoming endless.

I look forward to the day soon after the final release of Senator Trillanes to bring about a long deserved meeting between him and the inspiration of the entire anti-Gloria, anti-oligarchy, pro-masa struggle, President Joseph Estrada, who himself served six years and six months of unjust incarceration under the oppressive, illegal regime of Gloria Arroyo and the oligarchy behind her.

Although the two have not met in the past decade, I have always believed that Estrada and Trillanes represent genuine leadership for the nation and the Republic — being individuals (and leaders) of the highest order, and being truly patriotic and never subservient.

Unlike all other politicians on the present political stage, the two have never compromised their most fundamental principles of service to the people and the laws of the Republic in exchange for any quarter from the powerful oligarchs, corrupt tyrants or their prison guards.

Of the events surrounding this amnesty for Trillanes, there is one that seems very tasteless, to say the least. I am referring to the prosecutors of the Department of Justice (DoJ) who said, “We are disappointed… because we had wanted to know what the court will say… We concede that these are political offenses but we have a problem with the timing. If you want to respect the rule of law, we should have waited for the promulgation.”

Such is the farce of our judicial system where the criminals run free while the conscientious objectors, protestors, and dissenters are imprisoned, with the state’s lawyers totally helpless in helping the latter and prosecuting the former. The court trying the Magdalo and Trillanes case has taken too long to absolve the innocent and has proven to be inutile, too, in going after the guilty. Almost everything of vital importance in this society is decided by politics and not the law.

But the tasteless DoJ prosecutors’ comments only echo their secretary’s candid declaration that resignation has indeed crossed her mind after Malacañang tampered with the Incident Investigation and Review Committee’s findings.

Resignation is not something said but done. Her saying it while not doing it is hypocrisy and doubletalk—typical of the posturing of Aquino III’s Cabinet such as Robredo’s being Department of Interior and Local Government secretary but not really; Puno’s not taking jueteng bribes but not apprehending the bribers; and Defense chief Gazmin’s talk of an assassination plot against Aquino but not really offering any proof or follow through.

Meanwhile, my final “tasteless” award, though not related to the Trillanes case, goes to the Pasig River marathon led by “philanthropist” Gina Lopez who raised multi-million sums, not from her own pockets, but from tens of thousands of university students who forked out P100-registration fees and P150-T-shirts, and by compelling government to fund policemen and soldiers to join, while her family raises electricity rates again by another 30 centavos per kilowatt hour this month. This hypocritical kind of elite philanthropy, together with the tastelessness of the current political leadership, is what ought to go into the Guinness Book of World Records!

(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch “The Trillanes Saga” on Politics Today, Tuesday, 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m. on Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 21; visit our blogs, http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com and http:hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)