Sunday, March 02, 2008 Malilong: Cory, Erap in search of an encore By Frank Malilong The Other Side
I ADORE Cory Aquino. I can still picture the yellow headband I wore while waiting for her and Doy Laurel at the airport when she visited Cebu during the 1985 snap election campaign. And I can remember how I fought my way through many other fans just to press her hand when she met the media at the Casino Español.
When she was cheated, I obeyed her call for civil disobedience. The day she had an indignation rally at the Fuente Osmeña, I walked all the way from Tormis just to listen to her speak.
When she was finally installed in the office that Ferdinand Marcos and his Comelec tried to steal from her, I rejoiced. And when Gringo Honasan mounted one coup attempt after another against her, I prayed for her safety. To this day, I still respect her.
I also respect Erap Estrada because he is another human being and only because of that. I joined some of his campaign sorties in Cebu in 1998 because he was my friend Ed Angara’s presidential candidate. I did not vote for him. When he was driven out of Malacañang, I heaved a sigh of relief.
I never imagined that I would see the day when Cory and Erap would find themselves walking in the same company. Cory ended her term with her name intact, her reputation unsullied. Erap was not only unceremoniously booted out, he spent time in jail for plunder and would have still been languishing in a detention cell by now but for an undeserved and ill-conceived presidential pardon.
But there they were Friday afternoon sharing the same stage in the interfaith rally in Makati calling on President Arroyo to step down. Indeed, politics does breed the strangest of bedfellows.
They were there to join in the search for truth. Presumably, they wanted to know the real score on the ZTE deal. Who made money from the project and stood to make more money if it had not been aborted? How far-reaching is the corruption that attends multi-million-peso government deals and up to whose doorstep does it extend?
I want to know that, too. And certainly, so many other people who did not join the rally. The search for truth should be pursued vigorously and relentlessly. And I’m grateful to Cory and Erap for lending their name and weight to that pursuit.
One thing bothers me, though. Since you only search for something that you have not found yet, the implication is that Cory, Erap, the bishops, priests and politicians do not know the truth in the ZTE scandal yet. So why should they already hand down their verdict and mete out the penalty even while the investigation is ongoing?
We all know the drill. When you suspect your worker of stealing or embezzling company funds, you cannot fire him immediately. You can’t even force him to resign because that would be constructive dismissal.
You have to investigate him first, give him a chance to explain his side, ask if he wants a formal investigation and advise him that he can avail of the assistance of a lawyer.
But here we are in a case involving not an ordinary laborer but no less than the President himself and Cory, Erap and their friends, neighbors and others already want to terminate her services even as they say they are still searching for the truth on the accusations against her.
It’s as ironic as the sight of two former presidents, one, a direct beneficiary and the other, a deserving victim of People Power asking for an encore.
