Edsa 24 years later: Still a lack of justice!

Our special guest on our show on Straight from the Sky is someone who has been out of political circulation for sometime now. He is back in the limelight to push for his ideology - the Probinsya Muna Development Initiatives (Promdi), which means development for the provinces is paramount! Indeed, we’ve lived in a country that has always been so Manila-centric, all development focused in Metro Manila, while the provinces get pittance! Decades later, it’s the same thing over and over!

It gets worse when we elect Senators who live or come from Metro Manila and they only come to the Provinces in times like now, when elections are coming and they need our vote. But when the distribution of funds comes, they give the provinces nothing but crumbs. A clear example is the C-5 controversy hounding Sen. Manny Villar, where he not only placed a major road in an area where a road was already being built, he also put in, not one, but two flyovers. Here in Cebu, which Senator built a flyover for us?

 Tonight, we’re going to have a hard talk with former Cebu Governor Emilio “Lito” Osmeña who when he was governor of Cebu, he made us proud to be a Cebuano. He sold my golf course, the Club Filipino, Inc., which is now the Ayala Shopping Mall. That sale set the real estate prices of Cebu on fire and it skyrocketed and is still rising today. While he was a one term governor, he helped Cebu more as flagship chairman under the Ramos Administration. Watch this interesting show on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00pm tonight.

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It’s the 24th anniversary of the EDSA Revolt, which is weeklong event, but the holiday is celebrated today. In my library I have a book given to me by my mentor, the late Maximo V. Soliven in August of 1989 entitled, “Impossible Dream: The Marcoses, the Aquinos and the Unfinished Revolution” written by Sandra Burton of Time Magazine who was a good friend of Sir Max. This is one book that is totally unbiased and tells the historic events of EDSA from the eyes of a Time Magazine reporter.

It started on Feb.22 when Tita Cory was in Cebu with her runningmate Vice-Pres. Salvador “Doy” Laurel. The Carmelite nuns kept Cory in their midst and the next day she flew to Manila. On Feb.25, it was all over. The Marcoses fled and the EDSA or People’s Power Revolt had succeeded. But 24 years later, the EDSA Revolt is the only thing good that ever happened to this country. The country has gotten nowhere in terms of joining the so-called Asian Tigers, though, we must give credit to Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) for keeping the Philippine economy as stable as it is even when the world faced a huge financial meltdown.

But the greatest problem that plagues our nation today since the time of the Marcos Dictatorship is a “serious lack of Justice. In August 21, 1983 when Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. was assassinated, our battle cry against the Marcos Dictatorship was, “Justice for Ninoy, Justice for All! (JAJA). In the US at the height of the Civil Rights movement, their battle cry was similar:”No Justice, No Peace!” Ask anyone who has a case in court how long has his case been in the courts. I’m sure that their answer would no longer shock you because Justice in this country just takes too damn long, it takes years, even decades to solve!

During my days at the University of San Carlos Law School, we learned that famous Legal dictum, “Justice Delayed is Justice Denied!” Today, the election battle cry is to rid this nation of corruption. However I have written this over and over that shouting at the top of your voice demanding the end of corruption won’t solve the problem of corruption, simply because there is a serious lack of Justice in this land and judges really don’t care!

When was the lamppost case filed? What about the case of the Girls Scout scam exposed in 2004? Has it even reached the courts of law? Nope! Thanks to the Office of the Ombudsman, which is so damned centralized, people like Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Virginia Santiago are nothing but mere post women who cannot prosecute crooks in government unless it is approved by one person!

What is crystal clear to me is that since the Ombudsman is a Constitutional Body, we must somehow find ways give power to the Ombudsman in regions. The only way that can happen is when we change the Constitution and shift into a Federal Form of government. But if Sen. Noynoy Aquino III or Sen. Manny Villar becomes the next President, we will never see any improvement in our justice system or solution to the problem of corruption because these two presidentiables have vowed not to change the charter under their administrations. Yet both of them have no plan on how to stop corruption. Only Gibo Teodoro has vowed to change the charter, thus offering us the hope that things would change for the better in this country!