The second plunder case against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and several of her former officials is “full of holes,” her camp said yesterday. Those behind the complaint are private citizens, but the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration has promised to cooperate and provide assistance in bolstering the case. With the OWWA wading in, a dismissal of the case will give the Arroyo faction in the opposition reason to cry political persecution. And each time the opposition succeeds in making that point, it will undermine efforts of the Aquino administration to stamp out corruption – an effort that includes successful prosecution of the corrupt.
Failure to punish the corrupt, starting with those accused of looting national coffers during the regime of Ferdinand Marcos, has given the impression that this crime pays, and pays immensely. This has to be one of the biggest reasons for the failure to eradicate this rot in Philippine society.
Two presidents have been ousted through popular revolts that were fueled partly by public disgust over corruption at the highest levels of government. The landslide victory last year of the only son of Benigno and Corazon Aquino was seen as another dramatic expression of that disgust. Presidential candidate Benigno Aquino III tapped into that public discontent, promising voters that his administration would take the straight path. The nation is holding him to that promise.
One of the toughest challenges in delivering on that promise is making charges stick against those who are being called to account for corrupt deals of the past. All the accused in the plunder cases will have their day in court and must be accorded due process. Some of them could be innocent. Guilty or not, all the accused are expected to put up a strong defense. Those behind the latest effort to prosecute the corrupt must be thoroughly prepared for the tough battle ahead.