Following the mounting of what should count as 2011’s most dramatic production—the dragonfly neck brace, the grim medical bulletins (doled out by her lawyers and spokespersons, not by doctors), the dash to the airport, the retreat back to the hospital, the alleged assassination plot with a laughable name, the whining about being made to ride a chopper in inclement weather—former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s all-too-transparent bid to ensnare public sympathy was judged soundly by the public: with convulsive, collective laughter. The latest surveys say a large majority of Filipinos think the Aquino administration has accorded Arroyo “fair” treatment in barring her from leaving the country and then arresting her for electoral sabotage. This, despite a majority of the Supreme Court arguing otherwise with a temporary restraining order which upheld Arroyo’s right to travel over the country’s interest to bring her to the bar of justice for the crimes she has been accused of having committed or abetted during her presidency.
Clearly, the nation is in no mood to be forgiving of Arroyo. And why should they be, when the accused herself is in no mood to express even the tiniest bit of remorse, contrition or responsibility for the long list of scandals now associated with her nine-year stay in Malacañang? To go by the public pulse, then, the recent filing by the Office of the Ombudsman of a graft case against Arroyo at the Sandiganbayan, in connection with the scrapped National Broadband Network deal with China’s ZTE, can only constitute fresh, encouraging proof that the pursuit of accountability against the former president is moving along, however belabored and belated it might seem.
The formal charges, after all, come more than a year after President Aquino’s ascension into office, when his first announced order of business was to clean house and make sure Malacañang’s former tenants paid for whatever transgressions they had committed in office. The first suit slapped against Arroyo—the electoral sabotage case that effectively mooted the high court’s TRO against her inclusion on the Department of Justice watch list—has not escaped perception that it had been rushed, cobbled into an excuse of a case in record time, to meet the exigencies of the moment. The graft case, however, while it might have been long in coming, appears to be made of more robust stuff than the Comelec’s complaint, and thus should withstand greater judicial scrutiny.
It downgraded, first of all, the original non-bailable rap of plunder, leveled against Arroyo by Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño, into a bailable case of graft, since the Ombudsman said there was not enough basis for a plunder indictment. “GMA may appear to have used her position to fast-track the ZTE contract, but there is no sufficient evidence to link her to the receipt of the alleged payment of commissions and/or kickbacks,” it said.
That may disappoint those who wish for a stronger, more severe and airtight case against the Arroyos, given the widespread fear that, should the problematic electoral sabotage case flounder on technical grounds, Arroyo would forthwith attempt again to leave the country and evade further prosecution. On the other hand, the nuanced complaint does point to a greater degree of study and care poured into the case by the Ombudsman, raising hopes that the three graft violations in the charge sheet are persuasive and sturdy enough to finally do the trick of extracting a conviction on Arroyo and her co-accused, which include husband Mike, former Transportation and Communication Secretary Leandro Mendoza and former Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos.
“That [ZTE] contract was abrogated so there’s no damage done,” Mike Arroyo claims. But the Ombudsman’s report insists that “[t]he signatories to the NBN-ZTE contract are criminally culpable. The moment a public official signs a grossly disadvantageous contract, he incurs criminal liability even if the contract has been cancelled.”
Arroyo’s signature was in that aborted, scandal-tarred contract. Would that the Sandiganbayan now find probable cause in the Ombudsman’s complaint, and expeditiously put Arroyo on trial, so she could, at last, be made to answer for one of the dirtiest deals her administration had been willing to put the nation through. More importantly, may this case be just the start of many more formal opportunities in court to make Arroyo answerable for her past actions. Without the sense of justice it brings, closure would be well nigh impossible.