Presidencies and piracies
The verdict is out: Joseph Estrada is guilty of plunder!The mixed reactions are understandable, given the prominence of the accused and the yawning political divide the plunder case has created since Joseph Estrada’s ouster in 2001. Everyone has a right to react to the decision based on one’s personal convictions and affiliations. Still, others have an equal right to react to those reactions. Let these be expressed openly.
Leaving the legal options to lawyers, what is worth pondering at this time is the subliminal message conveyed by the said anti-graft court Sandiganbayan’s verdict to civilized society, or to polities where the rule of law, and not of men, is an established norm.
The verdict on Estrada is undoubtedly a verdict on our justice system as well. By rendering the guilty verdict despite veiled threats of a consequential social unrest or even violent protests from die-hard Estradap fans, the Sandiganbayan justices effectively and clearly conveyed a message to public officials, more particularly to those on the totem poles of political power, that in this country justice is, indeed, blindfolded. Justice doesn’t see nor hear nor feel political power and is, therefore, not daunted by it.
Through its decision, the Sandiganbayan has stressed that no one -- not even the highest official of the land -- is above the law. The relevant laws contemplated in this case are perhaps best captured in these words prominently displayed on the main menu page of the Sandiganbayan website: “Public office is a public trust. Public officers and employees must at all times be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty and efficiency, act with patriotism and justice and lead modest lives.”
The strong message implied in the decision is likewise sent to the corridors of power in Malacañang for its current occupant and her family to reckon with. That same message also goes to what-used-to-be-august halls of both houses of Congress, for the “witch hunters” and “whistle-blowers” in the Upper House and the “tongressmen” in the Lower House to heed. That same message should echo in the courts, for scalawags therein to think over. That same message should reverberate in all public offices, from national government agencies and constitutional bodies to provincial capitols, down to city, municipal and “barangay” [village] halls. Yes, that same message should send shivers down the spines of those involved in the fishy National Broadband Network deal.
Now, for the first time, Filipinos can hold their heads high before the Japanese and the South Koreans and tell them that in this country, too, there is a high sense of honor in public service. That sense of honor, that unequivocal standard of right and wrong, transcends politics. Now, for the first time, Filipinos can proudly proclaim that in this country’s drive toward transparency, honesty and accountability in public service, we don’t catch the small fish only; we get to catch the biggest ones, as well.
Had Estrada been acquitted despite the overwhelming evidence against him, the subliminal message would have been that in this country we confuse presidencies with robberies. Had Estrada been freed, we would have demonstrated to the world the inability of our justice system to draw the line between the roles of a president and the roles of a pirate. For, as Saint Augustine said, it is justice that distinguishes a kingdom from a band of robbers, an emperor from a pirate. In our context, to paraphrase Augustine, we can say that it is justice that distinguishes a presidency from a piracy, a president from pirate.
In this regard, what the saint and sage wrote in his City of God merits rereading and pondering:
“Justice being taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies? For what are robberies themselves, but little kingdoms? The band itself is made up of men; it is ruled by the authority of a prince, it is knit together by the pact of the confederacy; the booty is divided by the law agreed on. If, by the admittance of abandoned men, this evil increases to such a degree that it holds places, fixes abodes, takes possession of cities, and subdues peoples, it assumes the more plainly the name of a kingdom, because the reality is now manifestly conferred on it, not by the removal of covetousness, but by the addition of impunity. Indeed, that was an apt and true reply which was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride, “What you mean by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, while you who does it with a great fleet are styled emperor.”
