The rape of our sensibilities
Malacañang, according to a Palace official, is in earnest talks with former president Joseph Estrada for him to accept the offer of pardon by President Arroyo following his conviction by the Sandiganbayan early this month for plunder, and for which he has been sentenced to 40 years in prison.
There is no other plausible reason for Malacañang, specifically President Arroyo, to move heaven and earth to have Estrada accept pardon except the belief that pardon is akin to political insurance and may buy political peace, at least from the side of the opposition that is identified with Estrada.
And there is no other plausible reason why President Arroyo wants to take out that political insurance. She is deathly scared of the political and legal repercussions of her rule, whose legitimacy not only remains under question, but has been tainted by a lot of scandals, including the latest involving her husband Mike.
President Arroyo is deathly scared that once she steps down from office in 2010, that is if she can hold on to power that long, she will suffer the same fate as Estrada, and get sued herself for any number of charges, including perhaps also plunder.
Therefore, what better form of insurance to take out than a quid pro quo type of arrangement - I let you go, you let me go. And Arroyo has scant little time to put all her eggs in her basket before she goes. Three years may seem a long way off, or it may seem to be just around the corner. Whatever. Three years is three years. No more, no less.
But whether a deal can be struck between Malacañang and Estrada or not, the fact remains that the mere pursuit of such an arrangement reeks of a scandal of the highest order. It is an affront to sensibilities as we have always known them.
Estrada may have been elected by the highest electoral majority ever in Philippine history. But he was also ousted by people power. In other words, while it was the people who genuinely installed him in power, it was also the same people who shooed him away from office.
Estrada continues to harp that it was a conspiracy between Arroyo and the Roman Catholic Church that drove him out of the Palace. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Even if such conspiracy existed, it would still have failed without the clear support of the people.
Besides, to say it was a conspiracy between Arroyo and the Roman Catholic Church is to give too much credit to two entities that have largely become discredited. In case Estrada has forgotten, Arroyo had to settle for the vice presidency because her earlier presidential ambitions failed to take off. And the church has scandals of its own.
So, with Estrada having been ousted in a legitimate exercise of people power, and his having been charged in a criminal case that begins with the phrase " People of the Philippines versus, " and his case having gone through six years of public trial, how can Arroyo be so cavalier in ignoring these popular initiatives in favor of her private needs?
Even the Sandiganbayan, in allowing Estrada to remain under house detention, can be accused of unfairly carrying out justice, especially on the mistaken notion that, as a former president, he deserves a little consideration. On the contrary, he deserves more punishment because he betrayed the highest office in the land.
Both Arroyo and Estrada cannot toy with the sensibilities of an entire nation. The
We do not begrudge Arroyo and Estrada for trying mightily to save their own necks. That is the prerogative of every person. Every human being values his own life and would do anything to protect it. But to do so at the expense of the lives of others is an invitation to reap the whirlwind.
It is bad enough that the Philippines has become one of the most corrupt countries in the world, it is worse when its innocent citizens are being used not only to cover the tracks of corruption but are being ridden in the escape of the corrupt toward their private sunset of retirement.
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