The rich and influential are not like you and me. Impoverished people arrested for petty thievery rot in jail. The rich and powerful, indicted for murder or plunder, are allowed to travel overseas and be detained in their own comfortable rest house. Those whose special services are needed by the administration can have their convictions overturned on a technicality after their release from prison, and even have themselves appointed to public office.
At the height of this year’s effort to impeach President Arroyo, and amid the broadband scandal that forced Benjamin Abalos to quit as chairman of the Commission on Elections, the President granted absolute pardon to her predecessor Joseph Estrada, just about a month after he was convicted of large-scale corruption. The pardon even restored Estrada’s full political rights, which means the nation might see him running for the presidency again in 2010. The reason given by Malacañang, apart from the fact that the President can do what she wants when it comes to convicts: Estrada, at 70, was eligible for pardon.
To reinforce that story, Malacañang reviewed the records of other 70-year-olds who could be released from prison. If Estrada’s release earned the administration some good will from his loyal supporters, the pardon of former Sgt. Pablo Martinez, one of the soldiers convicted for the assassination of Benigno Aquino Jr., was a spit in the eye of former President Corazon Aquino, who in 2005 had demanded the resignation of President Arroyo amid allegations of rigging the vote.
Now the latest beneficiary of presidential clemency is former congressman Romeo Jalosjos, whose bailiwick in Zamboanga del Norte has consistently delivered the votes for the administration, and who is a party mate of National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales. Jalosjos, at least, has spent many years in prison for hiring the services of an 11-year-old girl for sex. There are Filipinos who think the life sentence imposed on Jalosjos was too harsh, and he managed to win re-election to Congress even while serving time at the national penitentiary. Those supporters deliver the votes when needed, and this administration knows how to show gratitude.