Destab

I get nervous whenever high government officials start claiming a “destabilization plot” is in progress. Most often, such claims are invoked to suppress dissenting voices and cover up the truth.

“Destabilization” is a cumbersome word specific to Filipino English. It is appropriately vague, sufficiently opaque. Being such, it allows the authorities to cast a wide net and implicate any number of groups and individuals for being part of a destabilization effort. Conjuring a scenario of “destabilization” has occurred so frequently in our political history, we have adopted an easier nickname for it: “destab.”

When a “destabilization plot” is officially declared to be in progress, a wide range of utterances suddenly become dangerous. The police or the NBI are less restrained calling in groups and individuals for questioning. It is easier for the authorities to intimidate those saying things that are unpleasant or simply inconvenient.

According to the authorities, the current “destabilization plot” culminates today. This is the reason why the presidential palace looks like a fortress, surrounded by layers of barbed wires.

The NBI, which refuses to disclose its sources, says a specific target of today’s “destab” is the Philippine Senate. For this reason, Senator Gatchalian, one of two claimants to the chamber’s leadership, ordered Senate employees to “work from home.”  What they could do from home is a wonder. The Senate staff exists to service proceedings in the chamber.

The first casualty of the “destabilization plot” supposedly in progress appears to be the hearing of the Cayetano faction’s Blue Ribbon committee scheduled for this morning. It is hard to imagine how this particular hearing could be held in the Senate plenary hall today. The building has been shut down on the basis of undisclosed “reliable reports.” The employees are locked out. The streets outside will surely be filled with riot policemen sent to prevent any disturbance.

Last week, there were obvious efforts to discourage the 18 former soldiers from entering the chamber and offering public testimony. Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla was caught on video trying to push Sen. Robin Padilla back. The secretary later claimed he was pushed. None of the Blue Ribbon committee staff was allowed to service the hearing.

All the efforts to prevent the testimony of the ex-soldiers, who were last employed by former congressman Zaldy Co, failed. The claims being made by this group were aired somehow. Those claims were, as expected, explosive.

In what seemed more like damage control, the Gatchalian-led faction held its own Blue Ribbon committee hearing. The hearing featured only one resource person: the chief of the NBI who spent all his time trying to discredit the claims of the ex-soldiers.

The effort to discredit, if not invalidate, the testimony of the ex-soldiers was comprehensive. Even their credentials as ex-Marines were undermined. Much was made about the fact that some of them were dishonorably discharged.

Palace mouthpiece Claire Castro made the bizarre claim that they should not be called “ex-Marines” because they are no longer in the service. Frantic to discredit the witnesses, she lost her footing here.

Senators claiming to be in the majority convened their version of a Blue Ribbon committee hearing (later downgraded into an organizational meeting), although it sounded more like a chorus to discredit the witnesses rather than advance the inquiry into the monumental looting of public funds. They took turns offering alternative designations for the group of witnesses, preferring to call them “kargadores” instead. That smacked of elitist haughtiness and promptly backfired.

The social media tallies show that our people were vastly more interested in what the ex-soldiers had to say. Hardly any attention was paid the Gatchalian version of the hearing. People did not not give credence to a hearing chaired by one of the accused. After a few agonizing minutes, it was apparent this was not a hearing. It was an echo-chamber.

Committee chair Erwin Tulfo mercifully ended the echo-chamber session, claiming the senators needed to give attention to the earthquake that hit Mindanao. Later in the day, however, he emerged to file libel charges against the ex-soldiers – a sure-fire method for intimidating witnesses.

It seems the public has already decided on what really happened with the hundreds of billions of looted public works funds. They earnestly want to hear whistleblowers give their testimonies.

Because the public has arrived at its own conclusions on what really happened, any further effort to comprehensively suppress incriminating testimonies will be futile. Calling truth-telling a “destabilization plot” will not hack it.

From the grapevine, we hear that even more whistleblowers are ready to surface. From one whistleblower named Orly Guteza, several dozen are now available to give testimony. They are not big and powerful people. They are the small workers that their masters thought would stay deaf and dumb to what they saw.

The powerful could not help in their frantic effort to deny them a forum. They have a compelling story to tell. We all want to hear that story.

The power wielders will try to pick apart their testimonies, hiring wily lawyers to spot inconsistencies and magnify every spotty element in the narrative. But these whistleblowers did not come out of the blue. No one contests the fact that these witnesses were all once employed by Zaldy Co. They saw and heard and, in some cases, have photos to support their narrative.

Our democracy will be better served it we allow them to speak.