Narvasa: Rule of mob? Media threatened anew - HERE'S THE SCORE by Teodoro C. Benigno

The rule of the law should prevail over "mob rule." This, in essence, is what former Supreme Court Chief Justice Andres Narvasa wrapped in velveteen as he accepted to be chief defense counsel of President Joseph Estrada in the impeachment proceedings. Fine, there should be no quarrel on that. The only trouble is that when it comes to the grandees of Philippine society, the high and the mighty, the cronies on high, the great tiger whales of political and corporate power, the rule of law seldom applies. Just examine our jails, all you see are the Great Unwashed, the poor, the oppressed, the powerless, the damned and the descamisados.

Every now and then, they throw in such a one as Romeo Jalosjos and Claudio Teehankee Jr. But their crimes were so sordid, the evidence against them so overpowering, the public scream for justice and vengeance so shrill, they had to be booted into jail. But for every Jalosjos punished, every Teehankee docked, hundreds have eluded justice because they were rich and privileged. What is utterly lamentable is that their crimes have decimated the Philippines to what it is today – a crime and corruption-ridden country hardly enjoying any respect in the community of nations.

All that is worth pondering because the Philippines today is tossing in a sea of turbulence.

Moral turbulence. Political turbulence. Social turbulence. Economic turbulence. If you have your ear pinned to the ongoing Makati rallies to have President Joseph Estrada either impeached or ousted (or he resigns), you hear most of the cries and, yes, the tears of the underprivileged. They ask questions such as: Why is there no social justice? Why did the Cory Aquino and Fidel Ramos administrations leave the poors as they are, poorer, and the rich as they are, richer? Why are the crooks, criminals, cronies, not arrested, tried and sent to jail? Why are we singled out for punishment?

Yes, indeed, why have the poor remained poor, neglected, oppressed, even ignored and spat upon all these decades? What do we answer them? How do we respond when they say: "We can hardly survive any more. Only one or two of our children can be sent to school, the others have to go to the streets to eke out a living. The food we eat hardly feeds our stomachs. Many of us are sick. And we can hardly afford medical treatment, medicines. The coming months, Christmas and the New Year holidays, will be cruel for us. And the months after that will simply crush us. The peso does not buy our direst necessities anymore. When the food starts to disappear, what do we do?"

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I address these questions also to former chief justice Andres Narvasa as he takes on the task of defending the President from charges he has pocketed hundreds of millions of pesos in jueteng money. And other charges that he has lavished a billion pesos for prime land and mansions for his mistresses. And plays mah-jongg with the pot in the millions. And reportedly gives balatos of a million each to Senators Tessie Aquino-Oreta and John Osmeña.

Let us quote Mr. Narvasa straight: "We should be governed by the rule of law and not by other remedies regardless of the rule of law. Or else there will be a mob rule."

Justice Narvasa, let’s stop kidding ourselves. The rule of law in the Philippines is largely for the rich, the powerful and the affluent. If only the rule of law were just, fair, upright, equitable, principled and uncorrupted, we would not be where we are today. It’s a dagger dance, our rule of law, legal daggers juggled in the air, daggers hardly seeking the hearts of the powers-that-be and the moneyed, daggers that pierce the backs of the wretches accused of minor and trivial crimes.

The philosophers were aware of that. John Locke affirmed that society had a right to revolt if they were helpless against a long and sordid train of abuses perpetrated by those in power. Hans Morgenthau in his classic Politics Among Nations (The Struggle For Power) had this in same vein, but with longer emphasis: "When a society or certain of its members are unable to protect themselves with their own strength against the power drives of others – when, in other words, the mechanics of power politics are found wanting, as sooner or later they must be, these normative systems try to supplement power politics with their own rules of conduct" (italics mine).

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The operative phrase is "with their own rules of conduct."

These "rules of conduct" Justice Narvasa calls "mob rule." I wonder whatever happened to the Grey Dean of the Corazon Agrava hearings investigating the assassination of Ninoy Aquino? Narvasa was a folk hero during those days and he never remonstrated against the huge, lusty, passionate street demonstrations against the Marcos dictatorship. Now that these are happening against President Estrada, he would refer to them as the mobs.

Those "mobs" are going to get bigger, Mr. Chief Justice. And you know what they’ll do? They’ll boo you. That’s for sure.

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The president has done it again, warned the media in one of his speeches in the South: "May araw din kayo." Your day will come. There is no doubt the president is good and sore, badgered and vexed by virtually the whole of media. Print, TV and radio have zeroed in on the jueteng scandal, the noise is deafening and the president isn’t getting any good press at all. He is hurt, he is bleeding. And he feels his side, his opinions, his views are hardly given any airing at all.

The president is particularly pissed at one daily morning broadsheet which he feels has gone too far in criticizing him. Well, that is not for me to comment on. Fair is fair in journalism. One paper may be too strident, another moderate, still another struggling to be balanced. But, of course, the jueteng scandal has skewered the president from brow to beltline, and he has all the right to get sore.

But it is the warning (may araw din kayo) that bothers me. Why say that at all?

Assuming (a thing difficult to assume) he gets into the clear, brushes off all these charges, and the law exonerates and vindicates the president, does that mean he will wage vendetta against those who have inveighed against him, this columnist included? I have had my own experience of my residence broken into three times, guns leveled at my temple, a long knife at my chest, my telephone lines cut, my computer disabled. Will that happen again and maybe much worse if the president is pronounced innocent? That, of course, is unlikely, but in our country, you never know.

It is in this sense, the peril to committed journalism, that former Subic big boss Richard (Dick) Gordon writes to this columnist:

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"Today, as I read your column as is my daily habit, I am reminded of the desecration of your home by unknown malefactors, apparently in another attempt to silence your pen. You have survived the trauma not once but thrice. It is bad enough that the sanctity of your home and the security of your person have been wantonly violated. It is even worse that this attack on the freedom of press can occur with impunity. Indeed, institutionalized greed and methodical plunder all occur with alarming impunity everyday.

"I read you rail against the daily vices and injustices that we all endure as Filipinos. I feel the reflected sentiment of our people groping around for true leadership and vividly envision your depiction of a rudderless nation adrift in rugged seas. I find myself nodding my head in agreement when you try to decipher the incomprehensible politics of the Vice President and mourn the death of credible opposition to the antics of the current regime. Many times I end up wondering whether the simple values of decency and character that were so deeply ingrained in us older folk have become naive, and maybe even disadvantageous, in today’s society. Many of your observations simply correspond to strongly-held but fairly basic principles of fair play and common sense. Yet, tragically, no matter how well written or explained, nobody seemed to give a damn.

"Please forgive the analogy, but many of your columns evoke the images of Don Quixote charging into the windmills again and again. It only reminds me of the evil times that we battle today were pretty much the same evils that plagued the ages. Much of my work in Red Cross today also requires daily struggles against hopelessness, inequity and apathy. Apparently like yourself, I find nothing foolish about insisting on what is right even if it is against conventional wisdom.

"I can identify with your battles and I write to cheer and encourage you to keep on your crusade. We must never be discouraged no matter how futile the struggle seems – it is more important that we continue to fight on until our people care. Never lose heart, you are not alone, always keep your courage, draw strength in the knowledge that you are fighting the good fight for a good cause, and keep beating the drums because we all must give a damn."