It was a radio commentator who pointed out the obvious. If, as Malacañang has tried to make it appear, former House speaker Joe de Venecia’s endorsement of the latest impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is of no great consequence, then why has the entire machinery of government been harnessed not only to discredit De Venecia but also to “punish” him?
On the day the impeachment complaint was filed, the Department of Justice recommended that criminal charges connected with the national broadband network (NBN) scandal be filed before the Ombudsman against the former speaker and his son. This, despite the fact that it was the younger De Venecia, Joey, “who had courageously revealed the corruption-tainted deal between the Arroyo government and the ZTE corporation,” he says in a statement.
De Venecia notes the “irony” that only he and his son were mentioned in the Department of Justice’s recommendation. None of the names most prominently connected to the NBN scandal which surfaced in the course of the hearings of the Senate “blue ribbon” committee on accountability of public officials—including the President’s husband, Miguel Arroyo and former Commission on Elections chair Benjamin Abalos—were identified by the Department of Justice, a situation that amounts to, says De Venecia, “prosecuting and persecuting the innocent and protecting the guilty.”
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If you will recall, De Venecia was one of the earliest victims of the NBN-ZTE case, even if he was connected to the scandal only tangentially. Because he was unwilling, or unable, to rein in his son who made public the involvement of Abalos and the First Gentleman, he lost the speakership, in a voting that was not only painful to watch, but also a moving lesson on the vagaries of power and loyalty.
Though now “only” a congressman from Pangasinan province, De Venecia still has considerable residual power and wields some influence over members of the House. But would that power be enough to gather the needed votes to let the impeachment bid prosper?
I think, at this point, it hardly matters. And I can understand why De Venecia now sounds like he wishes his endorsement of the complaint to form part of his political legacy.
“This fight is not my son’s fight alone; the complainants represent a wide segment of national society. It is their voices that have given this impeachment complaint its form and substance,” the former speaker says. “Their fight is part of the nation’s search for truth and justice. And we must restore to public office the virtues of openness, accountability, integrity and good governance—all of which the Arroyo administration has cast aside.”
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Details of the accident that resulted in the death of Dr. Francisco “Toto” Sarabia, Jr. are well-known by now, especially how the car he was driving was hit from behind by a bus whose driver was racing against another driver from the same bus line. While Sarabia’s companion survived the accident, it was too late for onlookers to rescue the doctor because his car had burst into flames.
In a statement, his family and friends describe the late doctor as “a civic leader, youth organizer, entrepreneur and dedicated eye health service provider.” Indeed, his was a life ended too soon, and for entirely avoidable reasons. But what makes Toto Sarabia’s death one of more than passing concern is that it is only the latest in a string of accidents along a major roadway in the metropolis.
Indeed, says the Sarabias’ statement: “Toto was only the latest fatality of chaos in our roads in our family. We have lost two others in the past, and recently almost lost another. Are the killers of our kin still in possession of their professional drivers’ licenses? We think so. They, and others like them, still probably ply the streets, hitting a car or a person every now and then with hardly a care, since their bus operators and/or protectors regularly bail them out and just assign them another trip, as if nothing happened.”
The Sarabia family takes issue in particular with the way the EDSA highway, Commonwealth Avenue, South Luzon Expressway, North Luzon Expressway and the C-5 highway are managed and lit. As a family of vision specialists (they celebrated recently the centennial of the family-owned Sarabia Optical business), they said, “we can’t help but notice that major roads with ‘no speed limit’ also do not have enough lighting to promote unstrained seeing.”
In addition, they said, “traffic signs—if there are any—are not always readable from afar, are often dimly lit, and are sometimes hidden behind other visual obstructions. Often, traffic enforcers are more ready to apprehend, rather than guide or direct drivers of private vehicles who can’t see those signs.”
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In palpable anguish, the family asks: “Which government agency, which government official, is accountable for the loss of Toto’s life? Who should we file charges against? Are just one bus driver and one bus operator responsible for his death? Who really runs this horrible mess called Philippine Roads and Highways?”
The Sarabia family attached a list of 12 “demands” to authorities, measures that need to be adopted to make major thoroughfares safer for motorists, and turn traffic enforcers into service-oriented public servants—instead of (and this is my own comment) entrepreneurs on the look-out for their next “customer.”
Scanning the list, I was struck by how eminently sensible and simple these demands were. Road and traffic management isn’t rocket science, after all, and though Filipino drivers are notoriously freewheeling and ill-disciplined, it’s been proven that when road conditions are good and there is a fair certainty that road rules will be enforced, these same reckless drivers turn into model citizens.
It may be too late for Toto Sarabia, but it’s still worth the effort to ensure the safety of the rest of the family, and the rest of this country.
