Death knell

Were it not for that mind-boggling escape of three terrorists from a high-security detention cell in Camp Crame, the past week should have been a completely happy one.

Two related events highlight the past week. After 17 years of trudging litigation, the Sandiganbayan declared the controversial coconut levy fund to be public property. That should clear the way for government to acquire the money and initiate programs that will benefit our ailing plantation sector.

The Supreme Court, for its part, finally rendered a decision on the Marcos funds held in escrow at the PNB. The funds, transferred from Swiss deposits, amount to about P35 billion.

The coco levy decision paves the way for government to sell off its stake at the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) and the large share of San Miguel Corporation that was purchased using coco levy money. When this happens, after the motion for reconsideration is settled, government stands to benefit from a windfall to the National Treasury. That will help tame the budget deficit – which, by the way, has been carefully managed to well below programmed targets through the first half of this year.

The decision on the Marcos funds sets a precedent for other cases involving secret accounts held by the estate of the former dictator. The recovery of the alleged ill-gotten wealth does not end with the expropriation of the fund currently held in escrow.

Victims of human rights violations during the period of dictatorship want a share of the escrow funds. While their demands for restitution might be just, it is not easy to divide up the money among all possible claimants. Once turned over to the National Treasury, the use of the funds will have to be determined by Congress through the General Appropriations Act.

Besides, there is a standing law that directs all funds recovered from the Marcos estate to the agrarian reform program. Agrarian reform, as it is presently conceived, might not be the most optimal method for modernizing our economy. But the law stands, based on what was considered politically correct in the late 20th century.

Beyond all the beneficial things mentioned above, the decisions rendered by the Supreme Court and the Sandiganbayan respectively during the past week symbolize the death knell for crony capitalism or whatever we choose to call the phenomenon of using access to state power as a means for wealth accumulation.

Crony capitalism was what brought our economy to its knees. It is the reason we missed the season of the Asian Miracle and thus failed to become a newly-industrialized country like most of our neighbors. It is the reason why so many Filipinos wallow in misery despite the natural endowments we enjoy and the many opportunities once open for our economy.

Crony capitalism is the reason the State is held in such low esteem by our citizens. It is the reason why the bureaucracy is demoralized and the political class discredited. For many disillusioned Filipinos, access to state power is just another name for organized theft.

Crony capitalism is a specter that could resurrect from the fertile ground of everyday corruption that we endure. It could resurrect when our political leadership loses its moral bearings – a recurrent disease in our recent history.

Crony capitalism is the demon that the bravest and most daring of my generation fought through the dark years when democracy was chained so that greed may be pursued unperturbed by dissent. It is a demon with many faces – some of those faces extremely popular.

The recent decisions on the coco levy and the escrow account are not just about money.

More important, they are staunch contributions towards firming up the moral principle on which our political community ought to be built. They help re-establish in our people’s imagination the idea that the State and the legal order are impartial arbiters of rights and reliable instruments for ensuring justice reigns.

Without the assurance that our institutions will function impartially and that the powerful will not receive special protection at the expense of the rights of others, then our imagination of democracy will be tenuous. We will, as in primitive societies, follow the lead of charismatic persons who will enchant us with whatever mantra is currently fashionable. We will be a community without a clear sense of rules and dependent on the quirks and characteristics of those who rule us.

It is the reassurance of the rule of law that is most edifying in the two decisions we now celebrate.

The money that the State acquires as a result of the two decisions hardly matter in the long run. They may be spent in the most judicious manner over the next few weeks with not much sustainable improvement in the quality of life of the millions who wallow in poverty.

But the principle of what is right and the legal standard established by the two decisions will continue to yield rich dividends for our people for generations to come.

Never again should it be possible for anyone to commandeer so much resources on the basis of a misplaced sense of personal privilege. Never again should the poor be coerced to raise the capital requirements of the rich. Never again should it be possible for political leaders to exploit the authority entrusted to them for self-aggrandizement in the staggering scale that was possible during the period of dictatorship.

The two decisions give all of us a sense that things have finally begun to change. They assure us that modern governance is possible and that the oligarchy that has treated our society as a private manor for generations has begun to recede before the rise of strong republican institutions.

It almost feels like a new morning for this country. It almost feels like a new day, one where justice is unassailable and the rules reliable.

It does feel like that – except that the al Ghozi affair reminds us that corruption continues to be endemic. It reminds us that much work has to be done to change not just institutions but the culture of public values that envelope them.

For if is true that jail guards allowed the escape of dangerous prisoners in exchange for money, compromising national security for thirty pieces of silver, then the situation continues to be untenable. The task of repairing our sense of the civic order remains large and looming.

That mind-boggling escape was a fly in the ointment of Strong Republic. It was a cockroach on the cake of two events that merit democratic celebration.

If we find those escapees back behind bars – or somehow dead in the bush –over the next few days, then our joy will be unrestrained.