‘Take Two’

Jinggoy Estrada has taken to the stand again—metaphorically speaking of course, though one hopes that will soon be literal—to say his piece.

The first time was when he delivered a privilege speech late last year to defend himself from the charge he plowed a good part of his pork into Janet Napoles’ fake NGOs in exchange for a kickback that reached almost half the amount. That was at least the idea, to defend himself, which he never did. Finding that offense is the better part of defense, he never claimed to be innocent of the charge, he just claimed others were guilty of it too, or a variation thereof. Including P-Noy, whom he accused of de facto bribing—though he refused to use, or acknowledge, the word—the senators into voting against Renato Corona.

And wonder of wonders, he managed at least for a while to make the world forget about him.

This time around, it is not a privilege speech, it is the filing of a counteraffidavit to the plunder charge against him by the Office of the Ombudsman. Emboldened by the results of his first appearance, which were to dent P-Noy’s credibility and pull down government from its lofty moral perch, he has decided to take the bull by the horns. He now denies naming any beneficiaries of his pork other than legitimate ones. He now denies burying his pork in any of Napoles’ NGOs. He now denies having anything to do with Napoles.

For good measure since it worked the last time around, he has tacked in an offense tack to his defense: The case against him, he says, was just invented by his potential rivals in 2016. “This is nothing more than a high-level political ploy to undermine the opposition of which I am part [of] in light of the coming 2016 national elections.”

Will lightning strike twice? Will love, or his luck, be lovelier the second time around?

Well, stranger things have happened. But much has changed since the last time around to have greatly diminished the likelihood of it.

For one, government has wised up to his tricks. The amateurs or members of the high school debating club, as government’s detractors derisively and gleefully called the people that used to run its communications arm, have been replaced by fairly skillful ones who know their job. They’re not likely to make the same mistake of taking a defensive stance all over again and giving credence to his views. They’re more likely to go to the heart of the matter, which is his innocence or guilt. And there is much to show for his guilt.

For another, the people themselves have wised up. Christmas last year offered a respite for us to recover our sense of perspective, our sense of proportion. The strident criticism of government, which plunged at some point to mindless rant in the social media, aided in no small way by professional spinners, has tapered off. To be replaced by the re-recognition or rediscovery that government, whatever its failings, is not the enemy of the daang matuwid. People like Napoles are. People like Jinggoy, Bong and Johnny are.

Indeed, people like those Jinggoy calls the “opposition” are. Which makes you wonder what he was thinking when he tried to explain away his being pinned down as a regular customer in the House of Napoles as just a ploy to undermine the fortunes of the opposition in 2016. What fortunes? The last elections would have shown in what esteem the voters hold them. And that was well before Napoles came along, before Jinggoy, Bong and Johnny got to be named her accomplices. Why bother undermining the already undermined? Or those who are already doing a great job undermining themselves? As Napoleon said, never interrupt your enemy when he is busy destroying himself.

That is the real issue against Jinggoy, the Napoles scam, and you can only hope government doesn’t drop the ball again this time. It is  not  his realigning his pork to give to his father, which, however insensitive or reckless, as some of his own colleagues charge, is perfectly legal. The law, as Chiz Escudero has pointed out, allows realignments of pork. And there is such a thing, as Jinggoy himself points out, as the “allocation to local government units” (Algu): If the other legislators have not discovered the Algu, that is their problem.

In fact, the whole problem there is pork itself. All it shows is that even at its most benign, which is the legislators’ role being limited only to identifying where their allocations should go, pork reeks of patronage. The legislators are not the first persons to see the needs of their communities, they are the last. Their perception will always pass through the prism of how to win a reelection, or worse build a dynasty.

Harping on Jinggoy funneling his pork to his father’s turf will merely give him the excuse to say other legislators use their pork for patronage as well, which has the advantage of being true. It’s harping on Jinggoy funneling his pork into Napoles’ NGOs that will pin him down like an insect under a microscope.

He himself has simplified the equation by denying his involvement with Napoles, which reduces the case to just ascertaining the facts. All other considerations, most of all his effort to muddle things again by claiming political persecution, have just been thrown out the window. Government has a direct eyewitness in Benhur Luy who has shown himself to be an exceedingly credible one, knowing the ins and outs of Napoles’ operations. And it has a hardworking and perfectly credible Commission on Audit under Grace Tan, and an equally hardworking and perfectly credible Department of Justice under Leila de Lima. The Furies have been known to catch up with those they hound. Who knows?

Maybe Take Two will yet turn up to be Take Down.