EDITORIAL - Muddling the issue

The Senate started looking last Thursday into the questionable plea-bargaining deal that former general and Armed Forces comptroller Carlos Garcia struck with the Ombudsman in connection with the plunder case he is facing.

There is no argument that the deal smells to high heavens and should be looked into. What is not clear is whether the Senate is the proper venue to pick the deal into pieces for everyone to see for themselves whether it is legal or not.

Besides, it is not even clear if the senators who took part in the investigation are even capable of being objective, the main requirement if the whole proceedings is ever to arrive at a truth the public can believe in.

A look at the composition of the inquisitors already gives one the sinking feeling that while Garcia probably deserves to get everything thrown at him, including the kitchen sink, he is likely to get it without benefit of the main requirement.

Some members of the Senate panel either committed their hand already by way of overt acts of defiance against vested authority, military or otherwise, or have political interests opposed to those to which Garcia and other former military officials have been identified with.

Others simply do not have the moral ascendancy to even start talking about corruption and plunder. In other words, the whole exercise is an exercise in futility. It serves no other purpose other than to project yet again our honorable senators before a nationwide tv audience.

The case of Garcia is already before the courts. And if, at this stage, it looks as if there is bound to be a miscarriage of justice in favor of Garcia at the expense of the public, then let the public do what it must when the proper time comes.

But let us not have parallel investigations because they can only muddle the issue and bolster the chances of Garcia claiming persecution when what he richly deserves is a conviction that is clear, fair and unassailable.