Divine justice

One of the most celebrated, albeit still unsolved murder mysteries in this country is the Corbito-Dacer murder, which you can put in parallel with the Aquino-Galman murder because these killings have political overtones. One of the suspects indicted in the murder of Salvador "Bubby" Dacer is former Senior Superintendent Michael Ray Aquino, a known aide of Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, whose friendship with Aquino dates back to the time when they were police officers at the Cebu Metrodiscom in the late 80s.

Well, it seems that the long arm of the law (American law, that is) has caught on with Michael Ray Aquino, this time for espionage! Also arrested with him is Leandro Aragoncillo, a Fil-Am analyst working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who apparently has a "top secret" clearance at a US Army base… and now they’re in deep trouble for allegedly passing information about present and former Philippine officials. Both of them share something in the past… they belonged to the disbanded Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), which was run by Sen. Lacson.

Isn’t it obvious to us that old loyalties never die? That even if these people were given the rare blessing that most Filipinos are aspiring to get — to be able to work in the United States — they still couldn’t get rid of their past friendships and in the end, they are now accused of espionage, a charge that could get them at least 10 years in an American jail.

I heard Sen. Lacson being interviewed on TV and he obviously sounded like the apologist of Aquino… trying to gain sympathy for Aquino, saying that he and his wife were hard-pressed in the United States working even as caregivers. Come now, if the Aquinos didn’t work, people would wonder where this couple got the money to support themselves. If you ask me, caregiving is a good job… but it can also be a good cover.

One doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist to know how deeply important it is for Sen. Lacson or his master, deposed President Joseph "Erap" Estrada, to keep Michael Ray Aquino away from the Philippines and well-funded, lest he just might turn state witness and reveal to the nation who really masterminded the grisly murder of Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito. But to those who believe in "karma," you can say that Divine Justice has its way of catching up on those who were behind the celebrated Kuratong Baleleng slaying, even if this was already dismissed by Quezon City Regional Trial Court Judge Maria Theresa Yadao. The fact remains that those suspected criminals were killed while in custody and someone has to pay for that crime and if they can’t pay for it here, at least American Justice will do it for us!

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One of the most respected women in the Philippines, Ms. Haydee Yorac, has succumbed to cancer and indeed, the nation has lost someone who believed in the rule of law. In an interview with Men’s Zone magazine a few months back, Yorac admitted that her greatest accomplishments as chairwoman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) were when she was able to recover the $683 million in Swiss deposits that were traced to the Marcos bank accounts, and when she established the ownership of the coco levy funds as belonging to the Philippine government.

Indeed, while the Marcoses claim that the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos was never convicted of any crime when he was alive (hence, they believe and insist that he should be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani), the irrefutable fact remains that due to her tireless effort in the PCGG, Haydee Yorac was able to recover $683 million from the Marcos accounts in Swiss banks in favor of the Philippine government… money that the Marcoses couldn’t have gotten via the salary of President Marcos.

Even harder for the Marcoses to explain to the Filipino people is, why did they stash this money (no, I didn’t say loot!) in Swiss bank accounts away from the prying eyes of the media, which is no longer controlled unlike during the Martial Law years. On this alone, this nation should be grateful to Haydee Yorac because this monetary evidence can refute the Marcoses’ claims of innocence. Again, this is Divine Justice.

The other thing that Yorac did was to establish the ownership of the coco levy funds as belonging also to the Philippine government. The only frustration she had with the PCGG, as that interview revealed, was that much of the evidence against the Marcoses had disappear… someone obviously bought them and you don’t have to search far and wide to find out who the interested parties are. I wonder why no one is being investigated for this?

On these two issues alone, members of the opposition then can heave a sigh of relief that indeed, the rumors about the hidden wealth of the Marcoses were more fact than myth and for this, we can thank the Lord God for giving us a feisty lady named Haydee Yorac who feared no one but God and who did what was right for her country.

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The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), through its president, Archbishop Fernando Capalla, has issued a call for Filipinos to "move forward and avoid excessive politicking," which only oppresses the poor and divide our people. I fully agree with the CBCP that we Filipinos are so engrossed with too much politics that it has become our major source of entertainment. We, in the media, cannot be blameless for this because too often we do have to take sides and thus, this promotes more division.

So to the question of how we can move forward, my response is, let’s not look back over our present Cory Constitution and more forward to a new Constitution that would give better governance for this politically sick nation of ours. It is for this reason why I fully support Charter changes so we can fix this nation and clean up the slate, so to speak.

Alas, the CBCP has stopped short of endorsing Charter changes, which undoubtedly would bring a new and better system of governance to this country… via a federal and parliamentary form of government. If they want something good for this country, then I suggest to the CBCP that they should begin studying why we need to change our Charter — and soon!

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to[email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talk show entitled, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.