Law is bent to serve the powerful
Will some of our leaders continue to block the public clamor for a reinvestigation of the “Hello, Garci” incident? When will they face the fact that some questions are still hanging in the air because they chose to ignore them three years ago?To put it simply, ignoring the questions made them live with the painful consequence, which is that the ordeal left them confused and dazed, unable to recognize what is right and what is wrong. If Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago indulged in more clever rhetoric in her speech (Aug. 28) about what is illegal and inadmissible in court, it was only because the trash she stored in her already cluttered mind made her forget that the spirit of the law is more important than the letter of the law.
What good is the law if, in the hands of the deluded, it only serves the interests of the powerful few to the detriment of the marginalized multitude? Is Santiago denying that the law has time and again been used by the rich and strong to frustrate the will of the poor and the weak?
It is time our leaders understood the fact that our Constitution is there purposely to uphold the dreams and aspirations of the entire citizenry, not just the ambitions and greed of the selfish powerful. That means leaders cannot persist in interpreting the law according to their own selfish inclination.
Indeed, they must realize that their tendency to talk glibly about the law -- while they ignore the need for public consultation -- hides the intention to deceive. This is what muddles the issues, thus violating the true objective of the law. This is why there is so much injustice in our system. Indeed, it is sad that our deluded leaders have wrought so much divisiveness -- the product of the bad advice to “divide and rule” -- just to stay in power.
And it is certainly a shame that a senator of long standing like Santiago chose to belittle the “tortured analysis” by Sen. Francis Escudero during his interpellation. For it clearly showed she has no respect for anyone who would dare to show more insight, more honesty and more promise than she could in something as important as upholding the truth for the nation’s sake.
The question now is, if the corrupt in our midst have soiled the law with their dirty hands and expect us to bow down to their antics, will the rest of us not rise up to fight for the truth and thus preserve our nationhood?
