|
Monday, August 15, 2005
Carino: Clean hands, glass houses, throwing stones
By Linda Grace Carino
IF ONE must go to court, clean hands are two things one has to have. That is to say, one cannot be guilty of the very transgressions one is accusing another of. When I heard that a legal organization Atty. Frank Chavez heads up is called "Clean Hands," I was impressed. The name of the organization seems to indicate that they know the importance of figurative clean hands. Better still, to name themselves so is to blatantly claim having them. I can only conclude that one cannot dare claiming such unless one indeed has clean hands.
In this light, viewing jueteng witness Sandra Cam, who has Atty. Chavez as counsel, I tend to the opinion that the good lawyer surely vetted his witness against stringent standards before taking her on, more so before letting her participate in a Senate hearing. The irony is, as was with her predecessor of years back, Ilocos Sur Governor Luis "Chavit" Singson, she is credible because her hands are far from clean, i.e., she and Singson know of what they speak because they know the game from playing it.
It is also said that those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. That is to say, perhaps especially for those who live in the public eye, that one cannot speak ill of others who do as you do. I.e., pots calling the kettle black. Which leads us to a look at local home politics.
It has been noted among a good number of sectors that when a former official chooses to throw mud at his successor, the latter not only answers with clean hands, he throws the book at the former and cohorts. Because if anything, it is the former and cohorts whose numerous, numerous (rhymes with onerous) glass houses reveal highly, highly, uh, irregular items...
And now to that biblical admonishment: let he who is without sin cast the first stone. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has used this line to answer accusers who tie her in to jueteng, poll fraud, anomalous contracts, deals with the devil, and so on. Her first line of defense seems to come easily. Dirt is thrown right back at her detractors.
Of course, that PGMA dodges the accusations hurled at her and lets her presidential machinery run hatchet jobs against her enemies is to beg the question/s. Still, one must hand it to the woman. Or the man ("behind" her, maybe). The manner in which her many crises is handled could be much worse. And like it or not, it looks like she will outlast her critics through sheer political acumen.
After all, it's all in the playing, as they say.
(August 15, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
|
