The rot must be stopped
Gloria Arroyo has nothing to fear about a renewed investigation by the Senate into the "Hello Garci" tapes. One, she is in no danger of being impeached at the House which is packed with her running dogs. Second, she can nonchalantly shrug off any embarrassment that may arise as the inquiry unfolds; she has long demonstrated by her actions that she has the hide of a hippopotamus.Let’s put aside Gloria’s person and her obsession to carve out a legacy. After six years, we know her and her lying, cheating and thieving ways as well as the back of our hand. As to her legacy, she will be long remembered for, first, grabbing the presidency and, second, for stealing the 2004 election to stay in power.
Let’s take her out of the equation and focus our attention in grappling with the dangers exposed by the "Hello Garci" scandal. The issue goes beyond Gloria, who is already a lame duck and just marking time until her exit in 2010. The very future of the Republic is at stake.
Let’s stop being silly like Joker Arroyo, who apparently has lost his liberal vision and democratic moorings in his dotage. The "Hello Garci" controversy goes beyond the admissibility as evidence of the Arroyo-Garci recordings as Joker insists.
At this point, whether Garcillano was talking to his dog or to a ventriloquist is a subsidiary issue. We are talking about an intelligence agency, the Intelligence Service of the AFP, which has turned rogue by mounting a politically motivated wiretapping operation in violation of the law.
This is not the first time Isafp has engaged in contemptible and condemnable political action. Remember Isafp’s cooking up of a report about Ping Lacson’s hundreds of millions of dollar deposits abroad?
Isafp commanders and their superiors have perjured themselves in denying they had wiretapping equipment in their inventory. They have since denied any involvement in other wrongdoing such the kidnapping and killing of militants. So what’s the worth of the word of liars? What other skeletons are rattling inside Isafp’s secret closet?
We hope the Senate inquiry could come up with the answers. We also look forward to new laws that would put an end to the we-are-above-the-law mentality of these intelligence people. And not only of the intelligence types in the military. The danger farther down the road is a military completely beyond control of the civilian authority. Let us stop the rot before it infects the whole body.
Gloria may have condoned, if not ordered, the Isafp’s illegal actions. No matter, a single diseased sample does not make for a pathology infecting all.
We have given up on Gloria. But we continue to believe our people will one day – and may that day dawn soon enough – come to enjoy the blessings of democracy and of the rule of law as vouchsafed by the Constitution.
