Erap vindication will come
Joseph Estrada had resigned himself that he would be adjudged guilty even before the Sandiganbayan handed down its verdict yesterday. He said he did not expect justice under the Arroyo administration, and that his worry was the reaction of his supporters to his conviction.Now Erap is back in his rest house in Tanay pending "further orders from the court." His supporters, stunned by the judgment, have gone home with bitterness and anger in their hearts. Nothing was heard of from Gloria, with her stand in, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, pontificating about how the administration has an economy to run and peace to be won.
The nation, in short, is back to where it was before judgment day, deeply riven by fault lines generated by the ouster of Estrada six years ago. The healing presidency promised by Gloria Arroyo has turned out to be more corrupt, more incompetent and more vicious in dealing with its perceived enemies.
The lines are becoming more sharply drawn. The expected review of the case by the Supreme Court may temporarily extend the prevailing uneasy calm. But the closure the nation is hoping for cannot be expected from this source.
As we earlier said it is Gloria, not Erap, who stands on the dock of history here. Despite his conviction and continued deprivation of liberty (being kept away from his friends, his family and his ailing mother is certainly not a vacation in a resort as his critics paint it to be), a defiant Erap is the real judge behind the scene from whom Gloria cannot escape judgment.
From Day One, Gloria wished that Erap had slithered away to foreign exile to legitimize her power grab. Erap, despite his well-known personal weaknesses, has proven to be a man of unbending principles. We would not be surprised if following the Supreme Court’s affirmation of the judgment, Gloria would dangle before him pardon for the "crimes" the Sandiganbayan found he had committed
The reality is, strangely enough, it is Erap who has all the time in the world to vindicate himself. In fact, he is at the moment as good as vindicated.
Edsa 2 is now widely seen as a grievous mistake for severely weakening the constitutional order. The Dionysian carousing of Erap while in the Palace is now seen as an authentic expression of his essential humanity in contrast to Gloria’s unfeeling, uncaring, mechanistic calculus of gains and losses (mostly gains for Gloria and her family; mostly losses for the rest).
In contrast, Gloria is due to exit in three years, with her reputation and her credibility in shreds. We don’t rule out redemption in her remaining three years. But we’re not holding our breath.
