Helicopter deal probe flying nowhere

Accommodation and compromise are the expected endings to the ongoing investigations into the secondhand choppers that former First Gentleman Mike Arroyo allegedly sold as brand-new to the Philippine National Police. But apart from the circus of Senate investigations, there is really no serious effort to prosecute Arroyo.

The firsthand accounts of Lionair president Archibald Po and other eyewitnesses in the chopper deal already constitute damning evidence. Couple this with the “evasion” of the former FG and his fall guy, brother Iggy Arroyo, and bookkeeper Rowena del Rosario, then what obtains is evidence sufficient not only for probable cause but also for actual graft conviction.

Yet, instead of filing cases to prosecute the Arroyos, not only over the chopper deal but also for electoral fraud and other crimes committed during the previous regime, Malacañang gave the Arroyos a way out. It declared that it will not stand in the way of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo seeking medical treatment abroad. Then lo and behold, all the Arroyos can no longer appear for any investigation. Gloria needs further surgery on her spine, Mike has a heart ailment, and Iggy a liver problem.

All that the Arroyos have to do is to call in sick. This is a way out not only for them but also for Malacañang. That’s because Malacañang can’t really be serious in prosecuting and seeking jail terms for the Arroyos.

The elite may bicker and quarrel among themselves but they usually settle at an equilibrium in dividing the spoils. What Ferdinand Marcos and, later, Gloria Arroyo did was to upset the existing system of distribution by alienating the other competing factions of the ruling class.

The task of any subsequent elite regime, just like President Aquino’s, is to restore the balance.

And this cannot be achieved by dividing the elite further but by reaching that point of compromise for all elite factions.

Hence, what is justice under elite dominance? It is reduced to the mechanistic motion of conducting investigations into corruption that lead nowhere. If P-Noy is determined to serve justice, he would have to exercise political will, but this is something that he is unlikely to do if he merely seeks to stabilize elite rule.

P-Noy is reducing the country’s problems to a single cause—the previous administration’s corruption. But he really shares the same policies with Gloria, committing the economy to unbridled privatization, deregulation and liberalization that serve elite interests.

Elite rule is the real cause of underdevelopment, unemployment and poverty. But as long as P-Noy can use Gloria’s corruption as the reason for poverty, he can divert attention from his own anti-worker, anti-poor and pro-capitalist policies.

That way, an illusion is created among the masses that P-Noy the Incorruptible represents change. Thus elite dominance is maintained and strengthened.

—LUKE ESPIRITU, National Council Member, Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM), 25 Calderon St., Project 4, Quezon City