Grace Pandora

Grace Padaca is a former governor of Isabela province. While still in office, she allegedly granted a P25 million hybrid rice project to a non-government organization, resulting in charges being filed against her for graft and malversation of public funds.

The Office of the Ombudsman indicted her, prompting the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court to issue a warrant for her arrest. This was in May this year. But for reasons it probably would not admit, the Sandiganbayan failed to serve the warrant on Padaca.

 Interestingly, a few days ago, the same Sandiganbayan anti-graft court issued a similar warrant against former president and now congresswoman Gloria Arroyo. The ink has hardly dried on the warrant when it was promptly served on Arroyo in the hospital where she is confined.

It does not matter if, in the eyes of the public, Arroyo is evil and Padaca is a saint.

Both are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Or is justice suddenly different when applied on the basis of whether one is a friend of the president or is his sworn enemy.

Anyway, while the Sandiganbayan took its sweet time with Padaca, the president, for reasons he probably would not admit either, conveniently named Padaca a Comelec commissioner just a few short months before the 2013 election. This, however, complicated things.

The appointment brought Padaca into focus before the public eye. More importantly, it inadvertently brought the Sandiganbayan into the picture. As questions burned concerning Padaca’s qualifications as commissioner, so was the question about the warrant gathering dust somewhere.

The Sandiganbayan began making noise, the best it can do under the circumstances. But Padaca insisted that the Ombudsman, now headed by another dear Aquino friend, erred in indicting her and refused to post bail.

It became pretty clear that unless the president intervened, things were headed toward a potential crisis, not just about the breakdown of institutions, which Noynoy cares so little about, but of and among dear friends if the Sandiganbayan gets shamed into arresting Padaca.

Remember that it was the Ombudsman that indicted Padaca. And Conchita Morales, while a dear friend of Aquino, may not take kindly the Sandiganbayan’s pussyfooting on a case that was the result of hard work by her office. She might even resent Padaca’s claim her office erred.

But talk of how this president acts contrary to good taste. To head off the crisis, Aquino posted bail on behalf of Padaca and ordered his spokesmen to make sure the Filipino people understood that the P70,000 he used to post bail came from his own pocket.

Of course, Aquino misses the point entirely. For it is not whether the money he used came from the government or his own pocket. It is the gesture he made, as president, that makes paying bail for someone accused of committing a crime so revolting and sickening to the stomach.

The gesture sends as many wrong signals as there are people offended by it. But the most worrisome is that which could compromise the impartiality of the Sandiganbayan with regard to the Padaca case it is trying.

How ugly do you think it will be if the Sandiganbayan insists on its independence and convicts Padaca, whose bail was paid for by the president of the republic, for no other reason than that she is a dear friend and is therefore incapable of committing anything silly.

On the other hand, granting Padaca is truly innocent, any decision acquitting her will be tainted forever by doubts that the Sandiganbayan, understanding what Noynoy’s bond payment meant, simply took the hint. After Congress and the Supreme Court, now the Sandiganbayan falls.