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Friday, April 21, 2006
Editorials: Public’s right to know
It stirred a hornet’s nest, this half-rendered so-called Mayuga Report.
Now hornets are all over the country, demanding that the public’s right-to-know be satisfied.
The fact that it was only partially released for public scrutiny has courted people’s suspicion that there is more to it than what has been revealed in the summary.
And like predators that have tasted blood, the presidential detractors want to see more blood shed.
Credibility
What stirred the “hornet’s nest” is the current imbroglio over the report of a fact-finding board organized to look into the integrity of the results of the 2004 presidential elections.
The earlier controversy was over whether President Arroyo won the elections fairly and honestly, or whether her victory was not the outcome of massive tampering of results with the assistance of certain Commission on Election officials and high military officers.
The point at issue is really as basic as the report’s need for credibility in the public eye.
But the way it was rendered invited public suspicion that there is really more being hidden in the full report than what was written into the summary.
Rumors
The fact that rumors that preceded its disclosure said that the report had gone the rounds of military leaders for comments posed the possibility the report underwent heavy “editing” to protect certain interests.
There is something to the claim that the testimonies of 70 witnesses interviewed by the fact-finding board headed by Vice Admiral Mateo Mayuga were not fully taken into consideration by the board.
Thus, it is understandable that the board has reportedly not disclosed the entirety of its findings and recommendations, adding more fuel to the suspicion it is biased.
Full disclosure
On the other hand, standing on the principle written in our Constitution that “the civilian authority should at all times be supreme to the military,” some members of Congress are seeking full disclosure of the report and are questioning why copies of it have not been submitted to Congress.
The Senate committee on defense and national security is reportedly planning to petition the Supreme Court to compel the board to give it a copy.
Whatever the outcome would be to these maneuverings among the nation’s leaders and purported stakeholders in the Mayuga fact-finding board’s report, the fact should remain that the public’s right to know should be given consideration over other concerns.
Perhaps, it’s time the President make a clean breast of the whole issue for the sake of national unity and peace.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (April 21, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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