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Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Roperos: The elusive truth
By Godofredo M. Roperos
Politic also
For several months, people have been clamoring for the truth. President Arroyo’s political detractors say the truth would unseat the President.
But many months of searching for the truth had led to nowhere. Truth appears always to be beyond the reach of anyone.
Filipinos have been seeking for the truth in the jueteng scam, but have been unable to find it. The same with the alleged election fraud and “dagdag-bawas” scam.
And where, oh where, is truth hiding in the case of the “Hello Garci” tapes? Up to now, Filipinos are still in guessing game. Truth seems to be as elusive as the proverbial fresh water eel that is said to restore male vitality.
Metaphorically, the truth about everything else that is generating trouble in this republic has become as slimy and slippery as the eel, too elusive for anyone to get a hold on.
A slimy eel that may have succeeded in putting a whole nation in some sort of suspended animation, unable to move or do anything about its national leadership, which has reportedly lost trust and confidence in its leaders.
And so up to this moment, everything hangs in the air. We feel or sense something, but are unable to see or touch it. Such a situation can hardly be a basis for building confidence among those who are in search for truth. It would be quite difficult to develop the kind of confidence and trust that will eventually lead to the truth about what ails this nation.
Indeed, even down to the lower echelon of the nation’s government, the search for the same truth is being replicated, although in, perhaps, a different scenario.
Take for instance the Bogo bank robbery case. Where does the truth lie here?
Who should the people believe? The reported confession of a former political goon or the town official whom he has implicated as the mastermind? Is there truth in the municipal official’s quick counter-allegation that the matter of his being implicated in the robbery is politically motivated? This puts the acting Cebu Police Provincial Office commander, whose wife is a municipal mayor and is reportedly aspiring for the political district’s congressional seat in 2007, on the defensive.
On top of this bank robbery case, there is also the reported missing “P26 million pork barrel fund.” It seems, the fund got lost in the labyrinth as it has been moved from one bank to another until it reportedly landed in a private savings account.
And so, the public from whom the money must have come from in the form of taxes (before it became pork barrel fund), collectively cried foul and clamored for the truth behind the fund’s bank to bank odyssey. Unfortunately, up to this moment, truth is nowhere to be found.
Certainly, we would like to join the clamor for the truth about all these issues.
But where do we look for it? And how does one find something in a mesh of probable lies that is being offered as the truth? But the truth may be found, embedded in the conscience of the leaders themselves. Yes, the only way we can probably find the truth is if all our leaders would bare to us their respective conscience.
(September 27, 2005 issue)
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