The Cassandra crossing

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
3/24/2006



Can we expect fairness and justice from the Sandigangbayan special court selected by the GMA plotters? They couldn’t even feign impartiality by conducting a raffle of the names of justices to try the case of Estrada! All special courts in history and in the Philippines have been designed to convict the principal accused, like Yamashita and Ninoy Aqunio who were both sentenced to death. Ninoy told the special court hearing his case, face-to-face, that he understood that he could not expect the members of the court to acquit him because their assignment was to convict him.

Atty. Alan Paguia is one of those who warns of expecting anything fair and just from the Sandiganbayan as the GMA regime can not be expected to shoot itself in the foot with an acquittal of President Estrada. What would happen to remaining shreds of the web of lies on which Arroyo’s regime hangs today – almost by the single thread of the case against Estrada which has also become so stretched and tenuous that the regime could not even allow the public the benefit of live coverage of Erap’s testimony. Without the live coverage they can at least hope to interpret the media projection their way.

Estrada’s opening salvo was indeed perfect strategy, combining defense with a powerful offensive using the IMPSA issue. The GMA-Nani Perez-Mark Jimenez IMPSA scam is a most vivid instance of GMA’s venalities with the juiciest soap opera of foibles of the rich GMA regime, its greed and debauched inter-personal relations, intrigues and betrayals – a tale that reminds all Filipinos that the prosecution is without clean hands in its charges against Estrada. At the same time, Estrada debunks all insinuations of his greed and corruption in telling how he rejected $ 14-M of IMPSA bribe.

Imagine if all of Estrada’s testimony were aired live, how that would fire up his eleven million voters who would be watching and empathizing. Yet, no matter how the GMA people would try to suppress Estrada’s testimonies, the truth will out and the people will discern it. Already, the polls show Estrada with the highest trust rating amongst the key national political figures with the overall plus 22% he gained in the last Pulse Asia survey, casting a deathly pall over Gloria’s minus 7%. Estrada’s testimony’s good start may be putting the last nails on GMA’s coffin.

Is a hint of a funeral dirge playing? Someone said to me, “Don’t miss the Senga and the song he is singing.” Senga, the Chief-of-Staff of the AFP, has been quite muffled in his public statements compared to the strong and loud assertions of his subordinate Gen. Esperon. Just about a week ago the latter said that the AFP had completely wiped out any military plotters, but Senga sang a different tune just the other day saying that, “RP may see more coup attempts” as one headline put it. Now, imagine how it will be when the expected conviction of Estrada is read by the Sandigangbayan.

By the way, its not just Senga singing that tune. Consider the assessment made by the BrooksBowerAsia in Wahsington D.C. just last week. The think tank’s roundtable assessment it organized came to the conclusion, after listening to several experts on the Philippines, finds Gloria’s political situation “alarming” and expects it to get worse if Gloria continues to hand on to power. If that’s not enough then listen to the mantra of Jesuit Archie Integan of the Ateneo’s Center for Strategic Studies who said, as reported by some headlines, that “Second stringers still dangerous” referring to the young officers.

This is why this piece’s title is “The Cassandra Crossing”, borrowed from a movie from a long time ago where a train chugged inexorably towards its doom. If the Sandigangbayan railroad does not change course, meting out a Kangaroo verdict in the Estrada cases, the railroading will lead to a Cassandra crossing. Cassandra is the mythical daughter of the mythical King of Troy who was given the gift of prophecy but doomed never to be believed. Many still hold on to a thread of hope that the Sandiganbayan will be fair and just, but the Cassandra train can be heard already.

Nothing will cause revulsion in the hearts of the people more than the conviction of a innocent man, especially a conviction that can mete out the death penalty. While we do not believe even the fascistic and cruel GMA regime can carry out such a heinous crime, they can certainly use it to further the blackmail they’ve applied on Estrada, delivered by Nani Perez (and attested to as a fact by former Chief Justice Narvasa in his testimony) in 2001 when they threatened him with the string cases if Estrada did not sign a resignation letter GMA sorely needed to legitimize her stealing of the presidency.

Some legal minds expect that the Sandidganbayan will convict in expectation of an appeal anyway, stretching the process several more years. They continue to shackle Estrada and keep him from stream rolling them in fair judicial and electoral actions. Pretenders like Lacson have tried to propel their dwindling ratings at Estrada’s expense, according to reports faulting and even “scolding” Estrada for “allowing” jueteng to fund his Mindanao rehabilitation. Why didn’t Lacson at that time resign from Estrada’s cabinet if that were true?