Mercado: ‘No basta decir adios’

Saturday, November 19, 2011

IT’S not enough to say goodbye.” That sums up former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s failed bid to board a flight-–any flight-–out at week’s end.

She needed urgent medical treatment abroad, GMA told the Supreme Court. Her appointees on the Court forthwith granted a temporary restraining order. That opened airline boarding gates.

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Flight would gut accounting for election sabotage, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima countered. Pasay court sheriffs served a warrant of arrest, on Arroyo, at her hospital suite. That stashed goodbyes--for now.

No basta decir adios is a headline, splashed by the Chilean magazine, “Induambiente,” on its cover. It jabbed the military junta, ousted for a “dirty war” of murder and sleaze. Return of civilian rule dismantled impunity that cloaked criminals, many in uniform.

Accountability is the hallmark of a mature democracy. It rests on a bedrock principle: Man must answer even for the last idle word that he utters. “In all things, therefore, look to your end,” the sages counsel.

The warrant is anchored to a Commission on Elections 5-2 decision to lodge charges for massive rigging of the 2007 elections. The Court also ordered arrest of key officials, including: former Comelec chair Benjamin Abalos Sr., Maguindanao’s Andal Ampatuan Sr. and former Comelec supervisor Lintang Bedol.

Dagdag-bawas, in the 2007 elections, handed a 12-0 shutout for Palace senatorial candidates. Maguindanao, among others, delivered implausible majorities. Juan Miguel Zubiri racked up 95 percent votes in Maguindanao towns (overseen by Ampatuan and Bedol). In his home turf of Bukidnon, he got 84 percent.

Since then, Zubiri gave up his Senate seat to the cheated winner: “Koko” Pimentel. Ampatuan and Bedol offered to swap Witness Protection Program T-shirts for “truth” about election sabotage.

GMA took her oath as 14th president of the Republic at the Cebu Provincial Capitol. “What lay ahead?” many asked. “If you can look into the seeds of time,/ And say which grain will grow and which will not,” Banquo wistfully complained to Macbeth.

What was future then is now history. It does not make for pleasant reading.

There were serial sleaze scams from the overpriced Macapagal Blvd. to the ZTE broadband scam. Pagcor racked up a P1.7 billion for coffee breaks. The Garci tapes surfaced. The Maguindanao massacre occurred. Etc., etc.

“A diminished presidency and heightened expectations is what (Arroyo) wants her successor to inherit,” then Inquirer columnist Manuel Quezon told the 14th National Press Forum. “Landmines left by the Arroyo administration will have to be defused.”

The “landmines” included “midnight appointees” studded into a plethora of agencies. Until threatened by impeachment, Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez defended GMA’s flanks. Her former chief of staff, Renato Corona heads the Supreme Court, thanks to a quarter-of-midnight appointment.

Now, GMA is being called to account for her stewardship. Rep Mikey Arroyo faces tax evasion charges. Soon, the First Gentleman will be grilled-–on overpriced helicopters to start with.

Filipinos gifted Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo with nine years to serve her way into selfless greatness. She blew it.

Do the deathbed words of Cardinal Wolsey, who served Henry VIII at the cost of conscience, resonate? “Had I served my (country) with half the zeal/ I served my king (interests], God would not, in my old age/ Have left me naked to mine enemies.”