Tuesday, October 30, 2007 Cabaero: Moving on after Estrada pardon By Nini C. Cabaero Beyond 30
WHERE will this public resentment over the grant of executive clemency to former president Joseph Estrada lead us? Nowhere, if you ask the presidential palace.
Over the past days following the decision of President Arroyo to restore to Estrada his civil and political rights, there had been some thought-provoking discourse in the public realm. Most of the comments were contrary to Arroyo’s decision, while a few recognized it as her prerogative to grant pardon to convicts.
The issue became the talk of the town, a national preoccupation to dissect and analyze the fact that Estrada is now a free man. It is an issue that is polarizing the country between those who are against the Arroyo-Estrada tandem and those who remain to be patient with Arroyo.
But this preoccupation has to end, somehow.
Several calls have been raised to offer alternatives to the Filipino people.
There is the online petition that calls for snap elections in 60 days to replace Arroyo and Vice President Noli de Castro. Then, there is the call for the setting up of a transition government with Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno as head of the caretaker government.
The online petition for the snap elections can be viewed at www.petitiononline.com/snap08/petition.html with a total of 854 total signatures gathered as of 4:30 p.m. Sunday.
The advocates of the transition government option are Archbishop Emeritus Julio Labayen of Infanta, Quezon, Bishop Antonio Tobias of Novaliches, and Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez of Caloocan, and the group, Kilusang Makabayang Ekonomiya.
They wanted also that the transition government formulate an interim Constitution, abolish the Commission on Elections, suspend the Human Security Act and Value-Added Tax Law and prosecute corrupt government officials.
However, Chief Justice Puno turned down the proposal as he said he was not interested in politics and he would rather remain in the judiciary “to safeguard its integrity and independence.”
Former vice president Teofisto Guingona earlier suggested that Puno lead the transition government to pave the way for the holding of fresh elections.
It was reported that Malacañang wants closure to the issue of pardon to Estrada. Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said Arroyo’s critics and the general public have to move on for the interest of the country.
He said that to continue to question the pardon would be an exercise in futility as the act has been consummated.
“Let us put this black chapter in our country’s history behind us and concentrate on what is really important. It is essential for this nation to look forward. We have turned a page in Philippine history,” Bunye said.
But as to how the country could move on and put closure to this issue plus the many more corruption allegations still pending, Bunye was characteristically silent.
Moving on after the pardon to Estrada should not mean forgetting about the other issues that the government still has to answer.
