A good start against carnapping

The speed with which the Philippine National Police recovered my abducted Camry vehicle and apprehended the carnappers is good reason for cheer. And the possibility that the law enforcement authorities are making headway in containing, if not stopping, the menace raises hope for the future.

I would like to thank and commend the officers and men of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) for their expeditious work. I am certain that other carnap victims and the public join me in the hope that this breakthrough signals an intensive and effective anti-carnapping program.

The fact that most of the carnappers of my vehicle were very young (gang leader Ivan Padilla was just 23) is troubling. And the killing of Padilla in a reported shootout has generated questions.

But no one should forget that the Padilla gang carved a virtual Bonnie-and-Clyde saga. They stole cars with great audacity and frequency. And they looked beyond the reach of the law until finally stopped. These were young who were headed to ruin in a hurry.

The case has commendably brought out into the open the extent of the carnapping menace and what the PNP is doing about it. The chief of the PNP Highway Patrol Group has reported that the PNP is not sleeping on the job.

In all, 274 motor vehicles and 304 motorcycles were stolen during the first six months of the year, with Metro Manila recording the most number of thefts. Of these, 178 stolen motor vehicles have been recovered.

I have received multiple phone calls and emails from ordinary citizens expressing the hope that the anti-carnapping campaign will be sustained even though it is not as well publicized as my case.

The HPG chief also said that they have intensified the campaign against carnapping and started information dissemination to enable the public to prevent being victimized by car thieves. They are also intensifying the monitoring and control of vehicles being shipped out to other regions of the country through the Philippine nautical highway. Stoppage of this traffic is crucial.

One gets the impression from all this that the carnappers are not winning this war. The PNP is making some headway in its anti-carnapping drive. But meanwhile, the advice to all is keep your doors locked, install an alarm system, and, yes, buy insurance for your chariots.

Truth body must find closure

In devoting his very first executive order to the creation of the Truth Commission, President Aquino made good on his promise to create a special body to investigate anomalies of the Arroyo administration within his first hundred days in office.

“The process of bringing a necessary closure to the allegations of official wrongdoing and impunity has begun,” he said upon signing the EO.

Getting from here to there will be the challenge to the designated chief commissioner, former Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., and the four other commissioners.

That the body has been given a two-year lifespan is sound. Previous investigative commissions have gone on interminably for years, only to hand out inconclusive findings. The drama invested in this high profile case must not be anti-climactic.

No one should forget that the TC is just a fact-finding body. It will investigate; it will not indict and prosecute, let alone pass judgment over, those whom it finds as having committed wrongdoing. It will submit its findings to the Office of the President, Congress and eventually to the Office of the Ombudsman for appropriate action.

There are those who say that the TC would have benefitted if it were created and empowered by Congress. It would then be able to compel witnesses or respondents to attend its proceedings. But I can see why the administration did not go this route. Getting a law passed would have taken a long time, if successful at all.

Assigning the task to the constitutionally created Ombudsman was also problematic. The idea of Ombudsman Merciditas Gutierrez investigating former President Arroyo, who appointed her, would not have enjoyed much public trust.

The Davide Commission must do its best with the rope it has been given. It can do a lot. We attach too much importance to the power to compel people to testify, but in truth Congress does not achieve very much with its high-profile and televised committee hearings. Real fact-finding achieves more behind the scenes and through relentless investigation.

At the end of the day, the TC must be able to tell the nation what is what about the celebrated cases – Hello Garci, the NBN-ZTE scandal, the fertilizer fund scam, etc. – and whether the government can go forward with indictments or clear GMA and her alleged accomplices of public suspicion. If it does not, then it will be just one big waste of public money and patience.

Judiciary must also reform

To the credit of the Aquino administration, it is signaling to one and all that it will effect reform within the executive branch of government. Change is in the air. It’s not business as usual.

I do not see the same signal coming from the judiciary, particularly the Supreme Court which leads the third branch of government. There has been no call to arms from Supreme Court Justice Renato Corona, who took office just a few months ahead of President Aquino. It is still business as usual in our court system.

And business as usual means that our court dockets will continue to be clogged, cases will go on for ages, and lawyers and judges will continue to play their games behind the scenes.

The state of our legal system is one of the key concerns of foreign investors and international observers whenever they look at our country. They believe we are missing out because there is no assurance of fairness and expeditious treatment of cases in our courts. And there is a heavy suspicion, fueled by our own misgivings, that decisions can be bought.

With the reform thrust of the Aquino government, the justice department under Secretary Leila de Lima will surely try to bring the prosecution system in tow and contain the graft among the nation’s fiscals.

The judges in the nation’s courts need a similar summons to action. There should be zero tolerance henceforth for cases that go on for years. If advanced democracies like the US cannot afford such delays, how can a cash-strapped country like ours spare the money and the time?