“Thank God,” said Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo after a Pasay City RTC judge sprung her from jail on the ground that the evidence against her for electoral sabotage was weak. She paid her bail in cash and the court personnel spent some time counting the P1,000 in several bundles she brought along. Probably very carefully, mahirap na, baka kulang.
She does have reason to thank God in one respect. Which is that it is the P200-bill and not the P1,000 one, the biggest denomination currently in use, that carries the pictures of her and her father on back and front respectively, hers in the act of being sworn in as president after Edsa II. It would have spoken volumes if Arroyo were paying for a glimpse of freedom with bills that remind the world of her rise to power—and the moral decline that swiftly followed it.
Otherwise, well, she has always been a little confused about God. As evidenced by her constant invocation of him for ends that remind you of Shakespeare’s line, “The devil himself may quote Scripture to suit his purposes.” “God put me here,” she declared after a furor arose over “Hello Garci.” When even then the theologians were clear about the difference between God and Garci. Indeed, as evidenced by her call on her favorite bishops, the same ones who agreed that God put her there by saying, “Everyone cheats anyway,” to pray for her. Pray to whom, or what, she did not say.
But who to blame for her now breathing the same air we do?
First off, that law that says electoral fraud is bailable while plunder is not. Well-meaning officials have been saying of late that Arroyo and company should rein in their enthusiasms, her fling with freedom is bound to be brief, she’ll be back soon to face the charge of robbing the country blind. That’s all very well, but she should never have been allowed to “May I go out” to begin with. Of course you’ll hear the lawyers say, sorry na lang but that’s the law, and so long as it hasn’t been changed, it has to be obeyed. Well, if it’s so, then let’s change it this very instant.
It’s a bad law, it’s a benighted law, it’s an unthinking law. What is it saying—stealing the people’s money is worse than stealing the people’s vote, stealing the people’s will, stealing the people’s choice? What is it saying—appropriating taxpayers’ money is worse than usurping the right to govern, seizing the power to rule, governing without the consent of the governed? What is it saying—robbing the country blind is worse than robbing the country of its freedom, depleting the nation of its spirit, depriving the people of their future?
What can one say? What the —-?!
Second off, the government prosecutors. The case of electoral fraud against Arroyo is weak only in the way that the case against James Holmes, the Colorado mass murderer, is weak. It is in fact ironclad. There is prima facie evidence for it. But arguably, the government’s case is weak: It has to do with the 2007 elections rather than the 2004 one. Ironically, the people who prepared it argued that they chose 2007 over 2004 because they had more proof for the first than for the second. In fact, the opposite was true. All the proof they needed was staring them in the face.
Forget the contents of the “Hello Garci” tape if you find insurmountable, which it is not, the objection that they are the fruits of the poisoned tree. Mind only that Arroyo expressly admitted on TV that in her anxiety about the results of the vote she talked to a Comelec official. For which lapse of judgment she…was…sorry.
Why in God’s name (the God of Glory and not the God of Gloria) should we accept that a sitting president who talks to a Comelec official in the thick of counting has committed only a lapse of judgment? Why in God’s name should we agree that the one person who is given to lapses of judgment at critical moments should be the best judge of the gravity of her own transgression? Why in God’s name should we buy the idea that the best way to punish such a sin is to allow the sinner to have her people rally around her singing, “If we hold on together,” and force her to inaugurate herself president in the midnight hour but inaugurate herself president nonetheless?
Which we have done. The ease with which we ourselves have accepted Arroyo’s crime as a lapse of judgment is mind-boggling. The ease with which we ourselves have accepted Arroyo’s role as accused, judge and executor of her sentence is beyond belief. In fact, talking to a Comelec official in the middle of electoral canvassing is not a venial sin, it is a mortal sin. It is not a lapse of judgment, it is the snuffing of all light. It is not a bailable offense, or, heaven forbid, a transgression punishable by six years in Malacañang, it is a heinous crime punishable by jail.
And now that she’s there, you give her leave to make bail?
What can one say? What the —-?!
And finally, what a horrible message to send just after the Senate has impeached Renato Corona, just after P-Noy has delivered a magnificent State of the Nation Address. Both of which have served notice that finally the mistakes of the past will be corrected, finally the crimes of the past will be ferreted out, finally the criminals of the past will be punished. Both of which have served notice that henceforth there will be one law for the rich and poor, for the strong and weak, henceforth public officials will be made to account for their tenure and heaven, or hell, help them if they have not done right by the public, henceforth there will be right and wrong, the good will be rewarded and the wicked punished, there will be justice in this world.
And we let Arroyo go free—temporarily if the Pasay RTC is to be obeyed, and permanently if the Sandiganbayan is so?
What can one say?
What the —-?!