Trillanes to Reyes: "You have no reputation to protect"

Former Navy commodore Rex Robles has thrown down the gauntlet: He wants to be “invited” to the next Senate investigation that has “already killed” one person. And he wants to be given the “third degree” that seems to be the unavoidable lot of “guests” to these investigations.

Jinggoy Estrada and Antonio Trillanes should pick up the challenge. It would be interesting to see how the former respondent in a plunder case and the amnestied rebellious soldier would face up to a combative ex-Navy man fully aware and assertive of his rights.

When Angelo Reyes killed himself, most Filipinos suddenly remembered who they are supposed to be: Good Christians. How funny. If patronizing Reyes now that he is dead is a “good Christian” act, is it any wonder then that many are heading for the exits?

Lying unspoken deep in many a wavering Christian heart is the conviction that Reyes was “as guilty as hell,” courtesy of the implied extrajudicial verdict handed down by the dogs of war headed by the former respondent in a plunder case and the amnestied rebellious soldier.

Trillanes, as the live coverage by ANC would show, told Reyes to his face in the investigation that was supposed to be about something else: “You have no reputation to protect.” No words can better rip to pieces the “in-aid-of-legislation” alibi of the Senate.

In fact, no words can better describe the kind of treatment “guests” can expect to get when “invited” to a Senate investigation. “You have no reputation to protect.” Wow! There is only one meaning that can be inferred by that: Citizens lose all their rights before the Senate.

But Robles does not think so. As a military man, he is steeped in regulations. When you tell him he is being “invited” as a “guest,” he is going to take you up on what those words mean as understood by all good and decent men since the beginning of civilization.

I do not think, though, that Jinggoy and Trillanes (if you have not noticed it yet, I refuse to call them senators) will take up Robles on his challenge, unless of course ANC can be yanked out of the picture and keep the proceedings away from the public eye.

Robles can tear up Jinggoy and Trillanes to pieces if they push him too hard. Or he can be detained, a threat Jinggoy seems too quick to laddle out, like thick slabs of peanut butter on limp pieces of bread, which is what he thinks of all Senate guests.

Forget about Christian pretenses at charity. At the Senate prior to his death, you never really saw Reyes in a Christian light, did you? All we saw was the Jinggoy and Trillanes version of truth, that Reyes was guilty (what else is there in a Senate investigation but to find guilt).

But did he, or anyone else “invited” to the Senate as a “guest” deserve to be treated so shabbily? Why, of all places, must it have to be in the Senate where an “invited guest” loses all his claim to dignity and reputation, as well as the right and ability to protect them?

Why do “guests” “invited” to the Senate as “resource persons” “in aid of legislation” get accused, prosecuted, tried, found guilty, and, in the case of Reyes, driven to suicide by those who themselves have little or no dignity or reputation to protect?

Let us stop all this pretense and hypocrisy. Let us stop this nonsense of an investigation because the Senate neither has the moral backbone nor imperative to effect reforms in a rotten system.

If we truly want to reform the AFP, let the commander-in-chief do it. President Noynoy Aquino is in a better position to weed out the crooks in uniform than the wolves in sheep’s clothing at the Senate, who only want their few hours of fame on tv, courtesy of ANC.

By the way, in case you didn’t notice, ANC is repeatedly playing the limp defenses of Jinggoy and Trillanes as to why they cannot be blamed for Reyes’ death. It never occurred to ANC to put things in context by also playing repeatedly how Jinggoy and Trillanes abused Reyes.