Many years ago, a lowly sergeant of the South Korean armed forces went berserk. Using a government issued rifle, he shot six innocent civilians whose only fault was being there where the sergeant was. Immediately after having confirmed of the occurrence of the unfortunate incident, the South Korean minister of defense resigned from his lofty position. He acknowledged full responsibility for the act of his subordinate many ranks down the chain of command.
The story was uncannily similar when a Japanese cargo plane, flying in extremely adverse weather condition, slammed unto the side of Mt. Fujiyama. For the loss of lives and damage to government property, the Japanese minister of transportation claimed responsibility and forthwith resigned from his post.
I recall these incidents when the other day, the news headlines screamed about the filing of charges for plunder against three of the leading political figures of our country and more. After investigation the alleged crime of plundering billions of government funds for several months, the Ombudsman came up with the resolution to file the case.
No less than Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, who, as former senate president theoretically once held the third highest office of the land, was named as among those to be indicted. The influence of this senator spanned decades. We could not forget that he was among the chief implementing officials tasked with making sure that Martial Law would succeed.
According to the news report, should the criminal complaint be finally lodged with the Sandiganbayan, the persons, among others, who shall stand as co-accused of Sen. Enrile are Senators Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada although I am not sure if the information should identify them that way because, to me, these are not their true identities, but simply tolerated aliases. In the enumeration made by a procedural rule, it requires first that the information must state the name and surname of the accused then using the alternative word "or" it proceeds to identifying the accused with the use of any appellation or nickname by which he has been or is known.
Let me compare my South Korean and Japanese stories above with the case of Sen. Enrile, et al. The difference is obvious. If these senators were South Korean or Japanese, they had long resigned from office. When the alleged anomaly started to hug the headlines as being investigated by authorities, they would not allow the perception of some wrong doing to drag their office. But, alas, this is the Philippines. This is not South Korea, nor Japan. Only in "da Pilipins" can we see government officials sticking to their positions even in the face of serious accusations.
Resignation from office is not in the vocabulary of Filipino leaders. Why should, indeed, they resign when the electorate voted them to their high-strung positions? Why should they vacate their office when they have a contract to serve till the end of their terms? Why would they feel ashamed by the indictment of plunder when, under our democratic system, they are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt? In fact, as reports had it, these prospected accused have already planned on filing their motions for reconsiderations aimed at having the Ombudsman declare the absence of probable cause against them!
Only in da Pilipins! A very well respected dean of a law school in Luzon was interviewed in relation to this plunder case. He said that should a warrant for the arrest of these senators be issued, they should be detained somewhere else because they are not ordinary "pusakal". What the dean probably meant by "pusakal" are the guys who are accused of stealing few hundred pesos for their food. True, being accused of plundering billions of pesos puts our accused high officials in an entirely different level of thievery.
The distinguished law dean highlighted his opinion with an unerring reliance on the constitutional presumption that Sen. Enrile and company are presumed innocent. What appalled me though was that he made that statement in relation to the ordinary "pusakal" because it tended to persuade me into thinking that the ordinary "pusakal" deserve the prison cell because they may not be as presumed innocent as the accused senators. Oh My God!