Camp Crame 2014: Senate under siege

In a rare occurrence in the Senate’s history, a senator was arrested last week on corruption charges.

Sen. Bong Revilla was arrested on Friday on charges of plunder and graft in connection with the P10-billion pork barrel scam that had been rocking the Philippine political system since July last year.

Revilla was the first senator to be arrested since the Ombudsman indicted 54 people, including two other senators, in the Sandiganbayan on June 6 over the large-scale diversion of allocations from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) into ghost projects of bogus nongovernment organizations.

But instead of waiting for the police to serve the arrest warrant on him, Revilla decided to surrender, avoiding the humiliation of being handcuffed, although not of being fingerprinted and his mug shots being taken when he was booked at Camp Crame.

Enrile, Estrada to follow

Expected to be arrested this week, Monday at the earliest, are Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Jinggoy Estrada, who were also indicted for plunder and graft for allegedly pocketing tens of millions of pesos in kickbacks from their pork barrel projects.

Revilla is facing one count of plunder and 16 counts of graft; Enrile, one count of plunder and 15 counts of graft; and Estrada, one count of plunder and 11 counts of graft.

The three are the first senators to be indicted for criminal charges involving corruption in the Senate’s history.

Revilla surrendered to the antigraft court with flair, with his rowdy political followers and fans escorting him from his home in Bacoor town, Cavite province, to the Sandiganbayan and then to the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City.

Enrile and Estrada are reportedly set to surrender as soon as the Sandiganbayan issues warrants for their arrest.

The three senators head the list of 54 respondents, including officials of government agencies who allegedly had a hand in the transfer of their PDAF allocations to a syndicate headed by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, said to be the brains behind the pork barrel scam.

Senate’s power diminished

The senators’ fall from grace with the law underscores the depth into which the Senate’s power has plunged during the past four years of President Aquino’s administration, which claims to be a democratic regime.

Their arrest provided an ironic turn in Philippine politics, as the crackdown on official corruption was carried out by an administration that came to office on an anticorruption platform.

In this crackdown, an important political institution in the tripartite system of checks and balances, the Senate, appears to have suffered damage, as it is now reeling under the shock of the punch thrown by the executive department, which is demonstrating the seriousness of its “daang matuwid” (straight path) campaign to eradicate official corruption.

Administration officials claim that the plunder and graft charges brought against the legislators and agency heads and employees involved in the pork barrel scam are proofs of the transparency and honesty of the Aquino administration.

The senators will be tried without the immunities and protection of the Senate, whose prestige and power have been diminished by the involvement of its members in the corruption scandal.

Cheap shot

As if gloating over the emasculation of the Senate, historically the chamber that has played the role as the bulwark of legislative independence against the executive department, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima fired a cheap shot last week, hailing the arrest and detention of Revilla as “a milestone in our justice system.”

In the beginning, she told reporters after Revilla’s arrest, “it was next to impossible and highly improbable that our elected officials would be issued a warrant and arrested by the Sandiganbayan.”

She said Revilla’s arrest showed the “determination and resolve of the Aquino administration’s anticorruption campaign.”

Accurately, De Lima said it was “the first time that several elected members of the Senate will stand trial for plunder. It’s really a milestone.”

But it can also be argued that the arrest is a milestone on the road to the subordination of the Senate, with the fight against corruption serving to justify the overzealous preparation of plunder and graft cases in the pork barrel scandal.

On the defensive

The administration was put on the defensive by the arrests. Interior Secretary Mar Roxas  said the arrest of Revilla was proof that “the law applies to all,” adding that “this is not selective justice.”

“The message (of the arrest) to the Filipino people is that we should follow the law,” Roxas said.

Let’s wait and see how the government lives up to this commitment. It is not overstating things to say that the government should also follow due process in the rule of law.

Asked if the same rules would apply to President Aquino’s allies who have been linked to the pork barrel scam, Roxas said, “Yes, the President himself said we will follow where the evidence will lead us.”

Roxas did not say that the justice department is in control of the gathering of evidence and the preparation of the affidavits of witnesses.