Posted 11:57pm (Mla time) May 29, 2005
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer News Service
THE GOOD news is that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has sworn before a council of Protestant bishops that she hasn't gotten a centavo from jueteng. "I can assure you," she said fervently with eyes closed while the bishops raised their hands over her in blessing, "that I am one president that did not receive any payola." Bienvenido Abante Jr., a bishop of the Metropolitan Bible Baptist Church was sufficiently impressed. "We believe that. I don't think that the President would lie before all the bishops."
The bad news is that Ms Arroyo also swore on Rizal Day 2002 that she would not run for president in 2004 because, she said categorically, to do so would mean assuring "unending divisiveness" in her country. At the time, I too said to myself: "I believe that. I don't think the President would lie before the grave of Jose Rizal." Well, she did run, and assured unending divisiveness in her country.
The bad news is that Ms Arroyo also swore before the body of Pope John Paul II that the Pope, when he was alive, praised her for bringing back morality to this country. Well, while the Pope was alive, he bitterly condemned the Iraq invasion as immoral. As president, Ms Arroyo has been its leading spokesperson. While the Pope was alive, he bitterly condemned the global order imposed by the WTO as immoral. As president, Ms Arroyo has been its leading exponent. While the Pope was alive, he bitterly condemned the culture of death as reprehensible. As president, Ms Arroyo has posed before bodies riddled with bullets and slumped on the wheels of cars to advertise fighting crime.
The bad news is that Ms Arroyo has also repeatedly sworn before the people that she would undo the corruption of the Erap (nickname of former President Joseph Estrada) government. Yet today, the very thing that brought down Erap's government, which is jueteng, continues to rage like a forest fire in summer, first and last in the President's home province of Pampanga.
In the last two cases at least, I no longer said to myself: "I believe that. I don't think the President would lie before the Pope-a prospective saint-and the people. Is it possible the President holds the Protestant bishops in greater awe than Rizal, the Pope and the people? You tell me.
But as I said in a previous column, I don't know that the jueteng expose will end up leading all the way to GMA (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo). At most it will probably suggest strong links with Mike and Mikey Arroyo. Even the jueteng expose against Erap did not prove his patronage of it conclusively, and that expose was made by no less than a presidential pal, Chavit Singson. The only damning evidence we had was Erap trying to impress Clarissa Ocampo by signing a check in front of her with the name "Jose Velarde." Someone routinely signs checks in the name of "Jose Pidal" and nothing has happened to him.
Bishop Oscar Cruz himself has said he has no proof against GMA. Which GMA's people have naturally spun, Ignacio Bunye immediately going out of his way to thank Cruz for the vote of confidence and branding those pushing for a congressional inquiry into jueteng as destabilizers. Which prompted Cruz in turn to issue a clarification that he was merely affirming the principle that people were innocent until proven guilty. His group, the Krusadang Bayan Laban sa Jueteng, he said, "had no choice but to subscribe to this judicial principle." But that didn't mean GMA was off the hook, he said. In fact, he was giving the President only one year to three years to stop jueteng. If she doesn't, he said, he would personally go to the President and tell her: "Get out! What kind of President are you? You can't even stop jueteng."
My question for Cruz is: Why wait for one year to three years?
The judicial principle that people are innocent until proven guilty merely means that GMA may not go to jail at this time. It does not mean GMA may continue to govern at this time. Those are two different things. The basis of freedom is being innocent of a crime until proven guilty. The basis of governance is being weighed and found worthy. The fact that jueteng (which was the one thing the country overthrew Erap for) riots in this country four years after GMA came into power, signifying as it did the height of rottenness, means that she has been weighed and found wanting. She has lost her right to govern.
Indeed, the fact that jueteng has become the number one livelihood project right in her home province must suggest only two things. One is that she is the "patron saint" of jueteng in this country, notwithstanding that her name does not appear in the payoffs. Money has been known to slither upward by secret and tortuous routes. But like the wholesale murder of journalists, wholesale jueteng cannot happen without the collusion, or active encouragement, of the authorities. If jueteng flourishes this robustly in this country, it can only be with official blessing.
The alternative is worse, which is that GMA can't see what's happening under her nose. Probably right under, as in her own household. Between being an outright crook and an absolute fool, the latter can't be better. Certainly not for this country, which propped GMA up with the categorical, if implicit, order to clean up the pigsty her predecessor had made of the country. Turning the country into an even bigger pigsty unwittingly qualifies her for suffering the same fate as her relentlessly unwitting predecessor.
GMA not only has not stopped jueteng in the four years she's been in power, she has spread it like a cancerous growth across the country. Why wait for three more years? Why not say right now: "Get out! What kind of President are you? You can't even stop jueteng."
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