ON SIFTING THE TRUTH FROM
PROPAGANDIC BARRAGE
By Wilhelmina S. Orozco
HOW DO WE DISCERN THE TRUTH
FROM POLITICAL PROPAGANDA?
Being an accused official
for not having declared his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Networth, the
CJ took the seat yesterday to declare himself innocent of all the charges.
Are we convinced that he is
innocent and that he had told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the
truth yesterday at the Impeacement
Court
Summation
The greater portions of his
narrative in front of the judges and the presiding judge as well as the public
were fixed on portraying himself and his family as pristine victims of
oppression, first by Jose Maria Basa, the original owner of the Manila property
in question by the heirs themselves as to how the CJ’s wife had acquired full
control of it, and which was transferred for a paltry sum to their daughter at
a questionable public bidding. He also aggressively pointed at the President as
the source of all the calumny being heaped upon him and his family, mentioning
him as a “hacendero” out to take revenge because of the Supreme Court’s
decision to award Hacienda Luisita to the tilling farmers. That the President
is using the resources of the government to bring him down as chief justice,
including asking officials, like Ombudswoman Conchita Carpio-Morales to testify
against him, . he had mentioned as a case of attempt at the monopolistic power
over the government. Lastly, he challenges all the 189 representatives who
signed the impeachment case against him, including Senator Franklin Drilon, to
sign a waiver, like he did at the end of his testimony to reveal all their peso
and dollar accounts to the public; but he withheld the release of his waiver
pending the acquiescence of the challenged officials to do the same.
Method
So what makes of the CJ now:
Is he really oppressed or is he just singing that song, “you and me (Cristina, his wife) against the
world.” “You and me against the world, when all the others turn their backs…you
can count on me to stay…etc.” Hah! In terms of argumentation and debate, the CJ
has used the ad misericordiam method
of arguing, portraying himself as “Poor me.”
But is he really poor – is
he really a victim of circumstances? Funny how he did not mention at all that
he was at the height of the most pleasurable moment of his life when he became
a midnight appointee of that most corrupt president of the Philippines in 2010,
as the chief justice of the country, the highest aspiration of all lawyers in
this country. His appointment has paved
the way for his issuance of a hasty Temporary Restraining Order to allow his
appointer to depart from the country in order to escape from the charges of
electoral sabotage – twice actually, in 2000 and in 2004.
What am I saying here? Folks,
we need to sift the truth through a veneer of facts which are highly open to
scrutiny. (Why am I not moved at all even by the physical disability he showed
after his testimony? Is it because of my belief that any illness is brought
about, one half of it, by the person’s doings on his/her own body? I can only
be sensitive to the illnesses of those who cannot afford to eat three times a
day and therefore are deprived in a way of nutrition.)
As we are now on that stage
of truly strengthening our democratic institutions, we need to see the actors
and actresses in this impeachment case as truly demanding of our attention.
Will they perform according to the functions vested in them by the
Constitution, or will they use their seats as a source of power and resources
to gain more and eventually achieve full control over the will of the people?
Outstanding moment
When Senate Presiding Judge
JPE told the sergeant-at-arms to close all the doors of the Senate to prevent
anyone from leaving, after the CJ said, “The CJ of the Philippines
By the way, Sister Flory
Basa, related to Cristina, had likened him, in a replay of an interview with
her by Ted Failon over his radio program, to Senators Recto and Tanada who
brought stellar legislative achievements in the country. May I add that all the
flaws in JPE’s connections with the martial law regime are being dissolved day
by day as the hearing progresses.
Yesterday’s court hearing
would go down in history as also that outstanding moment when the Filipino
people watched with great interest and awe the way an impeachment case should
be conducted. It also showed to us that this is the way to get rid of corrupt high
officials in the country, that they will have to sit and reveal themselves as
they are in full regalia to the public, and be answerable to the charges. This
is the way to a peaceful exit of corrupt officials in a democratic country.
Hence, when the CJ mentioned
that this country is being slowly controlled by leftists in the government, as
evinced by the President’s closeness to certain factions led by Ronaldo Llamas
and his “cohorts, ” I did not believe that it was so. And if it is happening
now, I believe that the media in our country would be able to counter that very
well – to show that everyone’s voices would be heard. But woe if what the CJ
had said is true. President PNoy must rethink his political relationships very
well if so.
(Come to think of it, my
proposed socio-cultural and nationalistic projects to two institutions have
suffered from discrimination of certain people incompetent to judge the
significance of the subjects and whom I believe have channeled the cultural
resources to their proponent-pals whether from the over or underground I cannot
say now. But I would like to delve on this later on in another article.)
As a man of law, I think
that the CJ did not conduct himself in an appropriate manner at the hearing. I
expected him to show more objectivity and less emotionality over the case
against him. But that “ad misericordiam” could have been a ploy, a ruse to get
the sympathy of the audience which towards the end was already careening
towards him, except when he said that he was withholding the release of his
waiver over the revelation of his deposits unless the other legislators would
agree to do the same.
Then and there he showed his
fangs and how he views his position still – an equal to all the branches of
government. His position true is equal but the impeachment court is not. The
impeachment court towers over all other institutions in having been created to
try all officials guilty or not guilty of corrupt practices by the
Constitution. It is composed of elected officials of the country, unlike the CJ
who is a mere appointee, and of a corrupt president at that. Hence, even if the
position he holds is equal to all the rest of the government branches, his
holding on to his position is up for scrutiny now. His credibility as CJ is in
question.
Legal education
Hopefully this political
exercise in the impeachment should make all legal schools review their
curriculum from first to last years. Is the curriculum heavy on ethics? Are
questions of morals imbedded and explicit at every turn of a “lawful” person?
We need to question the legal education in this country because we tend to
think that a good lawyer could always wriggle a criminal out of his case and
even help him gain a reward from the courts with either freedom or just a
simple fine.
In other words, the legal
education in the country needs to be overhauled in the light of all what is
happening now. Remember the husband of the ex-president is a lawyer; Marcos the
martial law chief was a lawyer. Is there a pattern? Does knowledge of the law
teach or encourage one to know how to twist the law in order to serve one’s selfish
ends? What subjects in law teach that? Or what subjects in law are too liberal
to allow the student to veer his sights from the true significance of being a
legal servant?
Religious?
A certain ex-priest foresees
chaos after this hearing. Instead of showing the way for the people to follow
so that untoward incidents would not happen, he predicts disorder. Is this the
way a priest, a former member of the religious should think and even make
public his pronouncements? I hope that he is not a member of that group who
received manna from the previous president in order to shut them up with regard
to her “fake presidency.”
Well-meaning though he may
have been, his words are adding fuel to the fire instead of extinguishing it.
Maybe someone should tell him to be cautionary. We are not as well off as he is
to be able to flee the country easily should anything grave happen after the
resolution of this case.
Fortunately, another priest
in Baclaran, I heard a radio report still yesterday, had praises over what is
happening now, and who even castigated how some members of the religious had
been used as pawns by corrupt officials. So there are still, after all, a true
breed in the religious.
What to do
So what do we do now? We
need to egg on the judges at the hearing to perform their functions in the
interest of service to the people. We have suffered enough in the last
administration, when even a little squeak we would make over shenanigans would
result in harassment and worse, to
others the snuffing out of their lives.
The age of “Bonnie and Clyde ” in the Philippine is going and should be gone for
good. The selves of public officials must be geared towards the interests of
the people and not to their appointers or benefactors of manna as if they are
the owners of the resources of the people.
We need to be vigilant more
than ever. We need to cultivate – elect and allow to be appointed -- public
officials who would truly serve because they want the people to experience
prosperity, dignity, an ethical government service, righteous living and a
truly democratic way of life.
So help us Jesus, Allah,
Buddha, Quan Yin, and all other Gods and Goddesses.
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