A desperate Estrada’s acts of surrender are endangering our nation - BY THE WAY by Max V. Soliven

The Opposition and indignant church and business groups have been saying that President Estrada has lost the moral right and credibility to govern. If he goes on thrashing about like a drowning man, "surrendering" humiliatingly to every pressure group in the land, everybody will conclude worse: That Erap has lost the ability to govern.

I’m not talking of brain power or talent. Those were never at issue. (The cynics will add that this is because everyone already knows the answer.) What I mean is that, in his desperate desire to appease every sector, an Estrada bereft of ideological conviction and earnest moorings will be compromising right and left without a care for the terrible after-effects of his panicky actions.

Last Sunday, in Bacolod City, for example, he made an awful announcement, namely that he was primed to release 35 convicted Communist rebels from prison and 200 political detainees (against almost all radical Leftists) before Christmas.

In the same breath he declared he would commute to life imprisonment the court-affirmed sentences of all death convicts. What does this mean? All 1,500 convicts on "Death Row"? There was such an widespread uproar at this outrageous and sweeping move that the Palace tried to backtrack yesterday by claiming the commutation of death sentences would still be subject to individual review. Now, which is which? In one fell swoop, every effort to impose capital punishment as a deterrent to heinous crime has gone to naught.

Mr. President: Get a hold of yourself. If you persist in this manner, I can only say – you’re doomed.

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The President was apparently suckered into pledging the release of captured Communist rebels sentenced for serious crimes like murder and assassination and the indiscriminate release of all political detainees when retired Bacolod Bishop Antonio Fortich told him at a Mass in the St. Jude Thaddeus Church that "this is a time (Christmas) when prisoners are freed and debts are cancelled."

Now, everybody in Negros has known for years where Bishop Fortich’s sympathies lie. Negrenses and Ilonggos, including many officers and men of the armed forces, used to refer to him as "Commander Tony."

If Mr. Estrada thinks he can appease the Church by making such concessions to Monsignor Fortich, or, on a broader front, commuting to life imprisonment the sentences of convicts awaiting execution on Death Row, he is sadly deluded. As long as His Political Eminence Jaime Cardinal Sin and the Bishops’ Conference members are operating at full throttle, decrying his "adulteries" and immoralities, his gambling and other deplorable pastimes, how can he be "reconciled" with them without full repentance and the denunciation of his allegedly "wicked" ways? Throwing them a sop in the form of literally abolishing the death penalty simply won’t do. It merely reveals that he’s on the skids and scared of the howls of "Erap Resign!" and "Oust Erap!"

Even if he were to put on sackcloth and ashes and go barefoot in the hot asphalt to prostrate himself at the Cardinal’s and Manila Archbishop’s Palace (like King Henry went, barefoot in the snow, as a penitent to the Pope in Canossa), I doubt that at this stage Erap’s "sins" would be forgiven. I know that being too hard-hearted to "forgive" a penitent is unchristian, but Mr. Estrada looks defiant rather than repentant anyway, and, besides, the pious clerics regard him as beyond redemption.

So why all this comedia? The President must be writing his own scripts, with the corny Bacolod episode called "Asiong Palangga."

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In tandem with his mistaken and dangerous announcements is the strange peace deal the President made on the same day with the breakaway Communist alliance in Negros, the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa-Pilipinas and the Alex Boncayao Brigade (ABB). Does this mean he has forged a peace agreement with the ABB nationwide, or just in Negros Occidental? Who signed the peace agreement on the part of the Communists? Somebody with enough clout and authority?

It’s incredible that a Chief Executive of a nation can ink a peace pact with an assassination unit without its members properly identifying themselves, surrendering their weapons, and pledging to "stay put" at definite addresses in our peaceful communities. What will prevent the ABB "killers" from slipping out again and once more going on a murder rampage after milking the deal with Mr. Estrada of all its benefits, perks, and major concessions like pardons and amnesty for their captured and jailed confederates – precisely what we now see happening? The "Sparrows" who slew 200 or more soldiers, officials and civilians with impunity will now go free? Sanamagan. What a travesty. What a stupidity. This is a fruitless move by a President over-anxious to "make points" with the Left (who sneer at him, mobilize rallies, and believe that, owing to his bungling, their "time" has come), which endangers our nation!

If you ask me, it’s a self-defeating trade-off for Mr. Estrada. By seeking to mollify the radical Leftists and Communists – the very charge he and his cohorts earlier levelled at Vice-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo – Erap has surely angered the officers and men of the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police. Our soldiers and policemen lost many comrades and family members fighting the Communist rebels and fell personal prey to the ruthless butchers of the ABB. And now, 35 Communist rebels, tracked down, captured and convicted at great cost to the AFP and PNP in terms of blood, perspiration, and heartbreak are now going to be sent out of prison – free as predatory aves de rapiña – to indoctrinate, proselytize, recruit more cadres and promote rebellion anew? Their fists have not been unclenched by the rigors of imprisonment. From what we’ve seen, capture has not reformed them but served to stoke to even more heat the fires in their belly. And now they have the last laugh on the AFP.

They’ll soon be out. And what? Ready to kill again?

Certainly, remarks like those made by former Defense Secretary and former AFP Chief of Staff (Gen.) Renato de Villa should be taken with a grain of salt, particularly since De Villa was one of the failed contenders for the Presidency. Most of us were inclined to dismiss, as exaggerated, De Villa’s statement that the Armed Forces may "intervene to save the state." Ditto for similar warnings delivered earlier by such respected Old Soldiers as Generals Fortunato Abat, Rafael "Rocky" Ileto, and Edgardo Abenina (never mind Joe Almonte and Ramon Montaño). But in the context of Mr. Estrada’s sudden embrace of the Communists and the Leftwing radicals, "intervention" by the military could be an offshoot of his miscalculation.

And then there’s the American factor, never to be discounted in this "mental colony" of ours, particularly when it comes to our armed forces officers and troops who have for two generations been welded almost knee-to-knee to the US military and on the parade ground still march to the cadence of John Philip Sousa's The Stars and Stripes Forever. Yesterday, the Americans were outraged at the prospect of the impending release of the two ABB hit-men, captured, confessed and convicted, who mercilessly waylaid and killed American Col. Nick Rowe as he drove to JUSMAG headquarters some years ago. It can be argued – as the Left always does – that the life of an American should not outweigh the gravity the life of a Filipino. But murder is murder, and it cannot be excused by "rebellion."

Mind you, the Republican contender, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, already seems to be headed for the White House. Erap – who rashly proclaimed himself while in the US "a Clinton convert" and virtually "a Democrat", owing to his friendship with Al Gore – must know that the Republicans are an aggressive party, more prone to war and intervention than the Democrats. So, a word to the wise.

In his overweaning desire to make "friends", alas, Estrada is beginning to make "friends" with the wrong people.

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A final word on commuting death convicts to life. True enough, a President of the Philippines is empowered under Section 19 of Article VII (Executive Department) to "grant reprieves, commutations, and pardons, and remit fines and forfeitures after conviction by final judgment". On the other hand, it is doubtful whether the same Constitutional authority empowers the President to direct a "wholesale" commutation of all death sentences of convicts.

Our understanding of the power granted by the organic law to grant reprieves, commutations and pardons, is that the authority is supposed to be exercised on a case-to-case basis pursuant to a proper recommendation by a body authorized by law to recommend these things. This is why there was such a hullabaloo over the "pardon" (remember?) extended by Erap a year ago to "brain-eating" Norberto Manero.

Does this weird grant of "wholesale" commutation to life imprisonment, for example, include those sentenced to lethal injection due to the commission of heinous crimes? Will this "wholesale" commutation be accorded drug dealers, murderers who killed their victims under extremely violent circumstances, and child rapists who subsequently murdered and mutilated their victims? Excuse me while I throw up.

No, Sir. President Estrada is neither King nor Emperor with the Divine Right to reprieve and pardon from his royal throne. There is a legal process to be followed here, just as Mr. Estrada himself asks for "due process" for himself.

Undoubtedly, this inane show of "benevolence" was meant to woo the Catholic church which has long and loudly espoused the abolition of capital punishment. And what about our defenseless citizens? Will they welcome this act of encouragement to murderers, rapists, kidnappers, and drug lords? This misplaced act of "mercy" will only escalate crime nationwide. As for the Church? I’ve already pointed out WHY the churchmen won’t "forgive" Estrada.

Only the Communists and criminals will hail the President for this move. Communist praise, though, is laced with poison. They are, by their nature and creed, permanently committed to the overthrow of men like him and democratic government. (Imagine, a Christmas pardon for atheists who have no use for Christ!) As for the criminals, they’ll say: "You are our idol!" Beware, Mr. President, that they don’t idolize you as one of their own.