Tuesday, September 25, 2007 Malilong: Pathetic By Frank Malilong The Other Side
WE’RE pathetic. For the first time, we sent to jail a really big fish for corruption (because that is what plunder is) but even before the last strain of the Sandiganbayan clerk’s voice could vanish from our ears, there we were, stumbling over ourselves to find a way to get Erap out of jail free.
Even the media’s treatment of the story on the verdict in the country’s trial of the century was downright frustrating. The Court, upon Erap’s request, had only the dispositive portion of its decision read, thus depriving us of the opportunity to know the whys and wherefores of the conviction. I was looking forward to media helping us fill in the blanks. What we got was, to quote an Englishman friend, rubbish.
It couldn’t have been because the matter was sub judice since the court had already decided the case. Media was free to choose between giving us substance or garbage. Alas, they served us the latter and in abundance yet.
Thus, the day after the conviction, what the front pages of the newspapers carried were the reactions to the verdict, from Senate President Manuel Villar’s shameful expression of sadness to Sen. Francis Pangilinan’s inane and superfluous suggestion that Erap should be afforded the right to avail himself of all the remedies under the law.
And, of course, the raucous demands from friends, family, neighbors and others that the convict be pardoned, amnestied or otherwise freed even as the latter himself has declared repeatedly and in no uncertain terms that he was not accepting any form of executive clemency because he was absolutely certain of his innocence.
The pardon of a crime is ordinarily sought, not offered. And the one who seeks it must demonstrate willingness to comply with certain conditions, such as admitting his guilt, instead of imposing his own. What is happening in Erap’s case is exactly the opposite; it is surreal.
Could it be that he was right all along: that he has been wrongfully unseated (from the presidency), charged and, just recently, convicted? And we were all wrong: civil society and the media in condemning the alleged shenanigans that he committed while in office; the military and the police in withdrawing their support from his government; the prosecutors in haling him to court; and the Sandiganbayan in convicting him?
In that event, it is not enough that he is released from detention without condition. We should all apologize to him, restore him to his throne and, in the supreme act of atonement, hang all those who in 2000 conspired to nail him to his cross even if, as in the case of many politicians and leftist leaders, they have already made peace with him.
