WELL, it seems like the Truth Commission is in for a rough sailing. The much ballyhooed P-Noy Administration’s blitzkrieg quest for the “truth” might yet end up losing steam before it could take off due legal infirmities. In this administration’s hasty pursuit of grafter’s in the previous administration, they forgot that there are quite a few legal technicalities that might be involved. And how? Well for one, our very own Inday Miriam Santiago has already fired her opening salvo against this commission. We all know what the Senate’s femme fatale is capable of. When the Ilongga solon goes on the warpath, we can rest assured that her wrath is no dud. So just what kind of truth is P-Noy really searching for?
Since the dawn of civilization, mankind has been in search for the “truth.” Man, finite as he is, has been searching for the truth throughout his existence in this troubled world of ours. But if we were to really analyze things, there is really no absolute truth at all? Or is there? In the realm of salvation, for example, just look out how many religions we have on this earth all proselytizing that theirs is the one true path to heaven.
In the field of science, wasn’t Galileo ex-communicated for espousing the theory that the sun was at the center of the solar system and not the earth? And didn’t they believe that the earth was flat during the days of explorations? In our contemporary times, we still seek the truth. In our justice system, we have the factual truth and the judicial truth. What I am saying is that the facts may have been what actually happened but without evidence to back it up, then it will not stand in court. And then there is the convenient truth or the kind which one would like to hear as only pleasing to his ears. The possibilities are endless. Sure we want to rid our system of government of graft and corruption. We’ve heard that before. Haven’t we had enough of government agencies performing the same dirty job? As matters stand, the Truth Commission is just another duplication of our already red-tape wracked bureaucracy.
The truth? There is one reality that remains the biggest unanswered fact until now - who was the mastermind who ordered Sen. Ninoy Aquino murdered? After four presidents in post EDSA 1 era, the real principal by induction has yet to be identified or made public? Now isn’t this something to ponder about? Perhaps Tita Cory knew, but she’s taken that secret to her grave. So before P-Noy seeks to unmask grafters bearing the Scarlet Letter “A” (as in “Arroyo”), he owes it to history to reveal once and for all the real culprit behind his father’s assassination. After all wasn’t the Ninoy Aquino murder the proximate cause which set the series of political events to unfold thereafter and which catapulted Tita Cory to Malacañang, and later, P-Noy himself. It all goes back to August 21, 1983.
The truth? I still vividly recall Jack Nicholson’s retort to Tom Cruise in the gripping scene in the movie “A Few Good Men” which goes this way: Lt. Kaffee (Cruise)- “I want the truth”, while cross-examining Col. Jessep (Nicholson), to which the latter replied – “You can’t handle the truth.”
So before we take a few more hasty steps forward, why don’t we ask ourselves the question – can we handle the truth?