Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales was supposed to have said there is enough evidence to convict Senators Enrile, Estrada and Revilla. But she said she is still studying their motion for reconsideration and “only God knows if they will be indicted in court.” She also said she does not have a time frame to sign the charges against the senators.
I hope she was just not quoted well. Maybe the lawyers know exactly what she means. But to us who are not lawyers, the Ombudsman has done a perfectly good job of confusing us.
If there is enough evidence, why not file the cases at the Sandiganbayan already? Time is of the essence. The public, indeed the world, needs to be reassured we have what it takes to punish public wrongdoing among our officials.
But the Ombudsman says she is not concerned about the time frame for prosecuting the senators. The fact that she is on a junket to the United States while the Napoles revelations have gone into overdrive can’t be a good indicator of how seriously she regards these cases.
I realize due process demands she first acts on the merits of the motion for reconsideration filed by the respondent senators. But it is not reassuring to hear the Ombudsman saying that “only God knows if they will be indicted in court.”
We all know how slowly our justice system works. Still, the Ombudsman should not douse hope among our people that, in this case, the wheels of justice will move quickly. She seems to be saying we just have to accept the sad reality of our slow moving justice system.
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Any delay is almost tantamount to letting all the Napoles culprits go scot free. All the brouhaha of the past months, the million people march included, are for naught. Time works for the benefit of the public officials implicated in the Napoles scam. They will be presumed innocent for a longer time, enough time to get re-elected and be tempted to steal some more.
The accused senators are also probably thinking if they can only delay their prosecution long enough, a change of administration in two and a half years will allow them to get away with whatever they might have done with Mrs. Napoles. We are likely to get weary and be forgiving to those crooks with the passage of time.
Up until now, I have had nothing but the highest respect for the Ombudsman. I had been thinking that if there is anyone who can nail those culprits in the Napoles scam, it is going to be her.
There has to be a sense of urgency in the prosecution of the Napoles cases. The victims in these cases, the Filipino people, must be given the benefit of a quick disposition of justice.
Notice must be served that it is not business as usual. If the Ombudsman said she didn’t have enough evidence to convict, that would have been a different story. But she said they have, so what’s keeping the process from proceeding?
Our judicial system, reputed to be the best that money can buy, is going to be put into a most severe test with the Napoles cases. Indeed, with the number of high powered respondents or potential respondents, the Supreme Court must even consider a special court that will handle the Napoles cases exclusively until it’s over.
I know many learned and well meaning lawyers will say such special courts, like the one that handled the Erap case at the Sandiganbayan, goes against the equal protection guarantee of the Constitution. Why the special treatment, former Sen. Rene Saguisag will say?
Credibility of our institutions is why. Unless our courts are able to deliver justice and punish the high and mighty among us, cynicism of our citizens will be increased. Our judicial system is now seen to punish those who are poor and downtrodden, but allow the rich and powerful to get away.
If the Koreans can send two former presidents to jail for corruption and cause a third one to commit suicide, why can’t we jail senators and congressmen guilty of similar crimes?
These cases must be resolved before the next election. We have to know if some of these same senators and congressmen asking for our votes are guilty or not of such high crimes.
I am not saying we do a kangaroo court trial to speed things up, but the prosecutor of the cases cannot say she is not sure when she will sign the charges.
Then again, even a special court will not guarantee a quick dispensation of justice. There is a special court handling the Ampatuan case but they are nowhere near a real start of the hearing on substantive matters almost five years after.
This government is partly fueling a favorable investment flavor abroad because of its reputation for honesty. That reputation will also go up in smoke if the furor generated by the Napoles cases does not result in an early prosecution of the high profile officials already named.
If the Ombudsman and the Supreme Court as court administrator have not yet realized the need to have a good plan to handle the Napoles cases, now is the time to catch up. We have so much at stake. Failure to get justice quickly cannot be an option.
MRT 3
Here is an interesting comment from one of the guys in one of my e-groups on the MRT 3 scandal on why P-Noy has failed to take action.
This will give P-Noy another photo op event wherein he visits an inevitable major MRT-3 rail accident site where he can be photographed giving orders to DOTC to investigate how such an accident could have happened.
It seems he prefers to visit accident sites than prevent accidents by visiting DOTC to read the riot act to its officials. Anyway, we have an honest president, and that’s what counts. Di ba?
Honesty
Nicholas M sent this e-mail in reaction to a column last week.
Merriam-Webster defines “honesty” as: “the quality of being fair and truthful”
If P-Noy can’t kick out incompetent people from their positions just because they are family friends or because for whatever reason (KKK take your pick), he is not being FAIR to the Filipino people, his bosses. He can’t kick out Alcala, he couldn’t kick out Torres and he can’t get rid of Abaya nor Mar. He aint fair, so you can’t say he’s honest.
Did you read Abaya’s retort to the second runway proposal? They will do what they always do, conduct a study.
He’s not being fair to us Boo.
I told you in 2010 and I’ll tell you again, he may be a nice guy and he may be honest because he doesn’t steal, but he aint presidential material.
He can be a good friend. But not a good president.
NAIA
NAIA GM Honrado said nothing new or could offer relief to long suffering users of NAIA facilities in a recent press forum. I was told he just underwent a quadruple bypass and we should take it easy on him. I am told he also only works half a day under the strict supervision of his wife.
For his health, and the nation’s, there is more reason now for P-Noy to let him go and enjoy the peace and quiet of retirement. If he was not effective when he was working full time, we can’t expect him to be effective now. His health is more important to him and his family than NAIA’s situation. We can understand his priorities now.
P-Noy owes it to his friend to let him go. P-Noy owes it to the people to have a full time and fully competent manager of our primary international gateway.
Anyway, here is a comment from another reader, A. Cervantes:
As to the installation of evaporative cooling systems, my understanding is that it is NOT condoned in US military installations, particularly indoors. Doing so will induce the development of respiratory problems.
ALSO, any engineer worth his salt, will tell you that one does NOT combine an evaporative cooler with the normal air conditioning system INDOORS.
The NAIA, with the installation of evaporative coolers to address basic air conditioning systems’ problems, obviously requires an ENLIGHTENED senior management to NOT DO. Perhaps, the problem is it CHOOSES NOT TO BE ENLIGHTENED? WHY?
Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is bchanco@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco
