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Saturday, September 10, 2005
Adaza: Sincere search for the truth
By Atty. Guerrero A. Adaza
My Viewpoints
THE opposition in the House of Representatives was simply outgunned and outmaneuvered. And so they lost in their valiant efforts to unseat the President by impeachment.
The young leaders in the House of Representatives from the pro-impeachment camp should have realized from the start of their campaign to oust the President that she will do everything in her command to keep her seat.
Surely, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would not leave anything to chance for the opposition to succeed in their crusade for her to resign. When Mr. Arroyo exiled himself temporarily, the opposition should have prepared for a bruising battle with the President. But they did not. For they thought that with the President having a low popularity rating, the people will join them.
Instead they allowed lawyer Oliver Lozano to beat them to the draw in filing an impeachment complaint, which was immediately endorsed by an administration congressman, which was a complaint full of loopholes. And so the Arroyo partisans ignominiously voted it down consequently during the voting in the plenary session of the House of Representatives.
Of course the administration congressmen fought hard in the Committee of Justice in the Lower House that the Lozano complaint would be the only one considered for deliberation and voting, it being a weak one, for the basis of its filing is the Garci Tape, which the law itself does not allow to be used in any proceeding if it was secured illegally.
The opposition knew at that time that they would lose the battle. The not so experienced solons of the opposition, who are lawyers, I don't know if they ever were in the practice of law forgot to take into account the constitutional provision prohibiting the filing of 2 or 3 complaints filed in a period of one year against an impeachable official in government.
And so the administration congressmen who are battle tested, a good number of them, that is, took advantage of the prohibition and overwhelmingly voted in the Committee of Justice to consider the Lozano complaint only.
Naturally, for their strategy was to cause the dismissal of the Lozano complaint during the plenary session, for the violation so called of the President was illegally secured by a wiretap which the Anti Wiretapping Law provides as inadmissible as evidence in any proceedings.
Arroyo had the funds and the manpower at her command and she had the best legal minds at her side to make sure that the constitutional way of ousting her will fail. The opposition in the Lower House did not have the luxury of having the services of the top lawyers of the country, for it did not have the funds to pay for their services. The pro impeachment congressmen assert that their colleagues in the Lower House are not at all interested to know the truth in the impeachment trial before the Senate it being the best way for the President to explain to the charge that she cheated in the elections.
Now that the impeachment complaint has been dismissed then the doubts that her election is fraudulent still hovers in the air. The opposition strategists should have realized that when Virgilio Garcillano of the Comelec who is alleged to be the hatchet man in the cheating operation disappeared certainly it is an indication that the President is not at all interested that the Senate trial will take place.
Arroyo's visits of the Bishops of the Catholic Churches paid off, for their organization Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) later on did not agree with the opposition' posture that she should be made to resign.
So the opposition could not muster enough crowds for their cry for her ouster to snowball.
The leaders of the local governments all over the country, who are many and are sympathetic to Arroyo, came out in full force to pledge their support to her not only through verbal pronouncements but in expensive advertisements in the newspapers and in radio and TV announcements.
The very few opposition local executives did not have the resources to match the initiatives of the President's men. The opposition's situation worsened for the business sector that wanted their businesses to prosper more and avoid a chaotic situation came out to support the administration. Thus the opposition could not get contributions from this sector.
Even the studentry, its majority did not come out to support the opposition's move for the President to step down. The El Shaddai and the Iglesia Ni Cristo, groups that can easily gather a million people to support a cause, are for the President to stay in power.
And the one who could provide the muscle to the opposition, the military and the police are still loyal to the Presidency. How about the Supreme Court? It is tasked by the Constitution to be independent. And it should remain that way. It's neutral for the President some say. Now that the opposition has decided to go back to the streets, can they get the sympathy of the silent majority to be with them? I doubt it very much, for the opposition is not truly united. The alliance of the opposition and the other groups is certainly shaky. The only binding thing that they have is their anger against the President.
The opposition should by now realize that EDSA I and EDSA II succeeded because the majority of the people were tired of the Marcos abuses. And the Catholic Church was united behind the effort to overthrow Marcos.
In the Estrada ouster, the military supported the call to remove a corrupt and do nothing President. And the Catholic Church again agreed to have it done. Worst, Estrada is not as brave and tenacious as Arroyo, so he scampered away from Malacañang, when told that thousand of demonstrators were on their way to unseat him.
He did not fight the good fight. How will this crisis end then? I believe that many months from now the opposition leaders will simply get tired in their desire to remove the President, for the majority of the people seemingly wants to simply move on in their lives and they are beleaguered as well with their own problems. And so why will they join the street protests? For what? Will it improve their economic condition? Are the opposition leaders that sincere and honest to lift up the situation of their miserable condition when they will be in power?
The middle class is not sure that those who mouth about justice, reforms and honesty in government are that trustworthy. So they would rather opt for a lesser evil and that is the present administration. However there are certain imponderables that the administration should be worried about and that is the effect of the E-VAT law's implementation and the restlessness of a sector of the military and the Catholic Church.
If the administration leaders will drop their guard, they might find themselves jobless one of these days and prosecuted for acts inimical to those who will replace them. This is what the politics of the world is. Friends today, enemies tomorrow. And strange bedfellows suddenly are together. There are but alliances and no permanent friendships, only permanent interests.
As a God believing nation, is truth still important in our lives? To my mind definitely it is. But the searchers for truth must have a pure purpose.
They must be credible and they must have the track record to show that they really are not opportunists but crusaders for the recovery of lost moral values of the people, so that a crisis of this kind will no longer bedevil the nation again.
(September 10, 2005 issue)
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