Lackey
We do not know if Raul Gonzalez spends time looking at the portraits of his predecessors. He should. His portfolio has been held by public servants, quite a few of whom took their positions seriously, and didn’t view it as an opportunity to be a lackey; some viewed it as the summit of their legal careers or a stepping stone to the Supreme Court. Two, in particular, established the possibilities for integrity while holding office: Jose Abad Santos and Jose Yulo. For all time, we would have thought, but how mutable time has proven in terms of the institutional erosion Gonzalez represents.Abad Santos in 1922 originally stayed above the fight between Governor-General Leonard Wood and Filipino politicians, until Wood told Abad Santos that it was a fight between Americans and Filipinos: at which point Abad Santos resigned saying if such a line was being drawn, he had no recourse but to side with his countrymen.
Reappointed under subsequent American governor-generals, and then under the Commonwealth, Abad Santos then took pains to resist political pressure, whether from legislators or even the President of the Philippines: he would not hire or fire on the basis of purely political considerations, and he would not file or drop cases for political convenience. He would go on to serve in the Supreme Court and become the foremost Filipino martyr of World War II.
Jose Yulo was offered the position of secretary of justice four times. Each time, he declined. When he finally did accept the position, as the inauguration of the Commonwealth loomed, he attached a condition. He accepted, he said, “But only on one condition: that the Department of Justice be detached from politics.” Yulo would go on to become Speaker of the National Assembly, but he did so without wrecking the judiciary or leaving a reputation for partisanship while he held the justice portfolio. Two decades later, when President Ferdinand E. Marcos wanted to put together an impressive first Cabinet, he convinced the elderly Yulo to serve again, an appointment that conferred prestige on the administration.
We are used to Cabinet officers excusing every possible instance of petty politicking, on the grounds that they are merely “alter egos” of whoever happens to be president. But even the most obsessively political of our presidents (that is to say, all of them) put a premium on the justice portfolio as a flagship for their administrations. The present disreputable state of the position can be firmly traced to the present administration.
Raul Gonzalez takes what can only be described as a malicious pleasure in using his office for the partisan interests of his president. When the Senate expressed interest in pursuing allegations of wiretapping, Gonzalez said he’d start looking into the Aragoncillo spying case. He made a big to-do about asking the Americans for copies of court transcripts.
For what? The Americans investigated, then punished, one of their citizens, Leandro Aragoncillo, for leaking classified documents to his Filipino pals. Definitely a crime for an American. Is it a crime for a Filipino, under our jurisdiction? Only if we are still an American colony, with citizens and officials bound by an oath of loyalty to the United States of America.
Is there something about our government we don’t know? Does Gonzalez serve two masters—and expect everyone else to be liable for punishment for crossing Gonzalez’s apparent boss, Uncle Sam?
Gonzalez would be the first to insist he serves no master but our Republic—what he really wants to do, as he told the press, is warn the Senate it can expect “tit for tat” when it comes to investigations. He mentioned the Kuratong Baleleng case, too: suggesting his interpretation of justice is as crude as it gets. Anything and everything can be papered over, forgotten, dismissed, so long as President Macapagal-Arroyo is left alone. Embarrass the President, and the full weight of the justice department will lean on whoever dares to fight with the Palace.
So by all means, let him hide behind the President’s skirt, and let him sneer that he is only her alter ego. It only goes to show the President is foursquare behind Gonzalez: and that he is not the secretary of justice, but a crude lackey, a disgrace.
