To jail or not to jail Erap - FROM A DISTANCE by Carmen N. Pedrosa

In November 1999 when this column first mentioned the possibility of impeaching Erap, there was a howl of protest and disbelief. This cannot be done, not in the Philippines. I cited the Ecuadorans who impeached their actor-President Abdala Bucaram for corruption and incompetence. But they said Filipinos are not Ecuadorans. Well, in fact, when the time came, Filipinos did better than the Ecuadorans. When they saw that the majority of senators whom they had invested with the power to impeach the President would betray them (voting not to open the second envelope on Jose Velarde), they carried the struggle to the streets. Military support for Erap’s ouster came after a botched impeachment process. The Ecuadoran experience was reversed. First Ecuadorans went on massive general strike for days making the country ungovernable. Only after the crippling strike did the Ecuadorans turn to impeachment, with which both Congress and military readily cooperated. It is said that Ecuadoran military support speeded up the impeachment process. After that, the turnover of power in Ecuador through impeachment was swift and orderly.

* * *

If the model for impeaching Erap came from Ecuador, the model for jailing Erap should come from South Korea. Since jailing a President as far as the Philippines is concerned is unprecedented, we may have to look outside for a model. I suspect that part of our timidity to jail a president comes from our lack of experience. Because we have not done it before, we hesitate, thinking that perhaps it is a job we can leave undone. But as PPC senatorial candidate Ernesto "Boy" Herrera says, there are models. Jailing a president, like impeaching a president, has been done by other countries. Herrera urged the Ombudsman to make its plunder case against former president Joseph Estrada airtight to ensure that, like Roh Tae Woo and Chun Doo Hwan of South Korea, Estrada ends up behind bars. He also said that, just as South Korea did, the Philippine government should demand that the billions Estrada plundered during his two-year government be returned to the Filipino people. "The billions Estrada took as commissions from deals involving the Social Security System and the Government Service Insurance System should be recovered. That should replenish the coffers of the two pension funds that Estrada and his cronies raided," Herrera added. Filipino newspaper readers should jog their memories and remember the images of Roh and Chun in prison uniform and handcuffs after they were charged and convicted for corruption. Roh was convicted for accepting hundreds of millions of dollars from top Korean businessmen. The two ex-presidents were subsequently jailed.

* * *

Watching the watchdogs. As ordinary citizens, we can only watch from the sidelines, at least for the moment, as our legal watchdogs wrestle with the evidence and conduct a fair trial. However, we must remind our courts that fair does not mean being lenient to Erap just because he was once president. Or accepting the delaying tactics of highly-paid Erap lawyers. If we did that, we would be back to the time "when the senators voted not to open the second envelop" and the threat to an alternative venue for the struggle between government and the people. On the contrary, the full measure of the law must be applied to a disgraced president as it should on any other humble citizen of this country. Only then can we hope to redeem ourselves for this sad episode in our history when we elected a bumbling actor to the presidency.

* * *

Will jailing him affect the May elections? I believe it would but not the way Erap’s cohorts (especially foul-mouthed Miriam Defensor-Santiago) says it will. On the contrary, if Erap is tried and convicted as the laws of this country demand, the country will be electrified with a surge of confidence that comes from doing what needs to be done. We would have taken a big step towards real nationhood. I daresay that the 13-0 movement will succeed. In the past we have allowed the weaker among us to decide what is good for the country. Unfortunately, some of these weaker souls sit in the courts that decide which way we should go. They are the benders and the procrastinators, men and women who are unable to accept that if we are to survive as a nation we must face both the duty and responsibility it entails.

* * *

Jail Erap if we must. That is the challenge facing us today as we enter into yet another phase of the People vs. Erap, once president of the Philippines. We should not shirk from the responsibility of jailing him with the full measure of the law. Otherwise we are back to the pits, to where we were when we made the supreme error of electing him President. We are not a nation, just a bunch of good-for-nothing layabouts pretending to be a nation. Already we read accounts of the preparation for the trial of Erap being reduced to the inclusion or non-inclusion of the terms "former president". Or even the dramatics of the Sandiganbayan presiding justice who berates the government prosecutor for being ill-prepared for court because his mother had died. Is this what the trial of Erap will be about? God help us all.

* * *

Appeal for teacher training program for Muslim children. Everytime I receive Wawell Osorio’s handwritten pleas from Basilan, I feel depressed that I cannot do more for him than write a paragraph or two for the marvelous work he is doing in Basilan. Wawell is probably the most trusted Christian working among the Muslims. His latest project is a crash training program for 150 Basilan Muslim teachers who will replace their Christian counterparts. Since last year he and his group have been working on the program for teachers from conceptualization, organization, screening of participants, preparation of modules, the site etc. etc. He shuttled back and forth from Basilan to Zamboanga to Manila and back again using personal money all because he thinks that this project to train teachers for the Muslim children is a good and deserving project. "It is just about the most positive and promising undertaking in the area." I agree with him. But there is a major hitch. They do not have any money and the crash training program would have begun on Monday, 25 April. I agree with him that it is for the future of our Muslim children that we must give all the help if we are to have peace and development in Mindanao. "My immediate concern is to raise enough for the teachers – meals and accommodations. The minimum expenses for two weeks for meals and accommodations is half a million pesos. The other immediate need is the cost of materials, handouts, etc. at about P350,000. The fees for the Ateneo de Zamboanga people and others involved in the project conceptualized and begun in July, 2000 and other expenses would run to about a million. These are not big sums. Ten people contributing P200,000 each would ensure that the teacher training program would continue. "Can you help me?" he cries. Well, Wawell, here it is. I hope some kind souls will read this and make out checks for the future of the Muslims in Mindanao. Those who would like to help, write [email protected] or fax me at 850-5101. It is urgent that the project continues.

* * *

Who is Melon Silverio? I suppose it is her very obscurity that provokes the question. But if the coming May election is a serious attempt to change our attitude towards politics, then Melon Silverio’s candidacy can be a beacon light. Here is a relatively unknown housewife who is pitted against Teddy Boy Locsin, a well-known journalist sponsored no less than by Makati kingpin Jojo Binay, and a controversial movie producer, Armida Siguion Reyna. Why is she running against such odds? Looking at her credentials and track record, Melon Silverio might be unknown to the public at large but she has worked hard and is well-known in her community. She has served the public of the city of Makati which she hopes can be a "progressive urban center whose residents are highly educated, community-oriented, morally upright and self-reliant. For a long while, Makati residents have complained about the oppressiveness of the corruption in their midst. Unless the line of Binay’s succession is broken, that corruption will be entrenched. Those who favor reform and new politics see in Melon Silverio, the neophyte politician, as their only hope in the coming May elections. She would rally both the rich and the poor who are dissatisfied with Makati’s governance. It is not an easy challenge but women like Melon have long discovered that all it takes is the will to take the first step. She has taken that first step by challenging Jojo Binay’s candidate, Teddy Boy Locsin, and Armida Siguion Reyna in Makati.

* * *

My e-mail address is [email protected]