Santos: Demonization of the Arroyos

Thursday, November 17, 2011

NOYNOY Aquino’s sob story that his murdered father was a human rights victim falls flat in the face of his government’s denial of former president Gloria Macapagal’s human right to travel, especially since her reason for it is to seek medical treatment abroad. Under Martial Law, then President Marcos permitted his father to leave the country for the same reason Gloria Macapagal wants to go abroad. Then President Gloria Macapagal also allowed former President Joseph Estrada to leave the country for the same reason – to seek medical treatment.

And both Aquino and Estrada were convicted criminals while Gloria Macapagal’s cases haven’t even reached the courts yet. It is still under investigation by the Department of Justice clearly biased against her, but can’t decide what to do with it because clearly the evidence against her is weak. So, Secretary de Lima is resorting to trial by publicity, thinking that by the time she hands down her decision indicting Gloria Macapagal, the public had been cooked enough to believe her.

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Looked at briefly, the cases against Macapagal are twofold: One, election fraud and the other one, the ZTE deal. The first concerns her telephone conversation with Comelec Commissioner Garcilliano, where she inquired about her margin over Fernando Poe Jr., and whether it would reach the margin she desires. She aborted the ZTE deal without any loss to the government resulting there from. While her telephone conversation with Garcilliano may have been improper, what crime could she have possibly committed? As far as I know, there is no law against inquiring about anything.
                
The second-hand helicopters attributed to Mike Arroyo do not concern her at all, unless we believe she is her husband’s keeper. Besides, the claim of that helicopter dealer that he sold those second hand helicopters to Mike Arroyo, who later sold it to the AFP as brand new falls flat under the documentary evidence that Iggy Arroyo, who was acting as their company’s president at that time, merely leased it from the owner who later sold it to the AFP.  

If the Aquino camp believes Mike Arroyo to be the engineer of that helicopter deal, there is no proof to substantiate that except the allegation of the owner, whose name appears on the sale documents as the vendor. And if the helicopters were passed off as brand-new, then is it not the vendor and the AFP officials who concluded the deal the ones indictable?
                
What is Mike Arroyo’s crime in it?  Worse, what is Gloria Macapagal’s?
 
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The demonization of Gloria Macapagal now approaches the demonization of Marcos. Yet, even Marcos remains innocent until now unless proven otherwise. Until now, it has not been proven that he and Imelda owns those Swiss accounts. Imelda won an acquittal in a US court. These allegedly stolen assets are under sequestration, but until their real ownership is established, and that they were illegally acquired, the government is supposed to only administer them. Yet, we hear every now and then that this or that alleged Marcos assets were sold by the PCGG. Isn’t this pure and simple confiscation? And without going through the legal procedures before confiscating them?
                
Several times, some alleged Marcos ill-gotten assets were established to be really owned by their owners and were returned to them. The sad part is that PCGG agents have already stripped them to the bone, when their mandated function is to preserve them until proven to have been illegally acquired.
                
If each and every citizen is entitled to avail of the barest minimum of justice, aren’t those hounded by Noynoy Aquino entitled to the same?