The Four-eyed Journal » Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

Insights on the 2010 Truth Commission - Legal issues and political necessity

jhay — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 05:49:42 +0000

Now that President Noynoy Aquino has signed Executive Order No 1, creating the 2010 Truth Commission that will attempt to ferret out the truth behind corruption scandals that mired the Arroyo administration, the public, pundits, legal luminaries and media have swarmed with their thoughts about it.

In this post, I will try my best to curate and present these various thoughts and insights, both pro and critical, about the 2010 Truth Commission as can be found on the interwebs.

First: What is EO No 1?

Ellen Tordesillas has given a handy-dandy answer:

Truth Commission will just investigate, not prosecute
Powers limited to recommendation for prosecution
It will have a life-span of two and half years. Up to Dec. 2012
Scope of work: reports of graft and corruption during the previous administration . Meaning the administration of Gloria Arroyo.
The Commission will decide which cases to investigate

The full text of EO No 1 can be read on the Official Gazette.

Second: Legal Challenges

Even before PNoy had signed EO No 1, lawyers and legislators allied with Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had started to ‘cry wolf’ and downplay it with legal criticisms.

Sen Joker Arroyo who said that the Truth Commission is doomed like a ‘toothless tiger’ because having been created by Presidential fiat:

it cannot compel attendance, it cannot compel anything, it can only invite. It will have no subpoena powers.

To illustrate his point further he compared how the Presidential Commission on Good Governance (PCGG) was created by President Cory Aquino with her son President Noynoy Aquino’s 2010 Truth Commission:

The best example is the PCGG. That was EO (Executive Order) No. 1 enacted by President Cory. Attorney Jovito Salonga drafted it, submitted it, and President Aquino signed it without corrections. It was challenged in the Supreme Court, [which] sustained it. That is the kind of an investigative body that will ensure success.

It was sustained by the Supreme Court because back then, President Cory Aquino, under the Freedom Constitution were both the Executive and Legislative branches of government. Every official act she did or order she issued had the full effect of the law.

Now, under the 1987 Constitution, those powers are now separately held by two branches of the governemnt: the Executive, which is headed by Presideny Noynoy Aquino is tasked to enforce the laws and the Legislative which is Congress imbued with the power to create laws.

Minority leader Rep Edcel Lagman of Lakas-KAMPI-CMD agreed and clarified this point further:

the establishment of the Truth Commission may be constitutionally infirm for the following reasons — the creation and funding of offices and commissions is a legislative power of Congress and, consequently, the Truth Commission cannot be constituted by mere executive fiat; the equal protection clause of the Constitution may be violated by targeting a specific group of officials for investigation; and the Truth Commission duplicates the constitutional mandate of the Office of the Ombudsman as well as the statutory jurisdiction of the Department of Justice.

Arroyo allies in the House are contemplating of going to the Supreme Court and challenge EO No 1.

Third: Flawed, but still necessary

Prominent lawyer, Harry Roque has eloquently described why the 2010 Truth Commission with all the legal defects is still a necessary body, to which I quote generously:

In transitional societies like South Africa where convictions for the gravest human rights violation has become impossible because of the passage of time and the dearth of witnesses, truth commissions have at least accorded these societies an opportunity to heal. While justice was not completely served in the absence of criminals actually being meted sentences for crimes that they committed, the truth would at least give the victims an opportunity to move on. There is solace in knowing, for instance, that a loved one who has disappeared has conclusively been found to have been killed. These kinds of confirmations at least accorded mothers to grieve, rather than hope that their loved ones could still be alive.

The Truth Commission to be established by P-Noy should not, however, follow the pattern of the South African model. In truth and in fact, the Commission should meanwhile perform the fact-finding function that the Ombudsman has opted not to perform. With Merceditas Gutierrez appointed precisely to protect the Arroyos, the intention should be not to accord the latter impunity, but to engage in fact finding while there is paralysis, nay dereliction of duty, in the Office of the Ombudsman.

The Truth Commission should thus be supported precisely because the evidence against the Arroyos should be gathered and preserved while the merciless Mercy is still in office. It should never be considered as a substitute for the vast powers granted by the Constitution to the Ombudsman. It is, hence, a stop-gap measure intended to send the message that at no time should the Arroyos think that they can get away with their crimes.

These are how things stand as of now. But there’s still a lot more. The Chairman of the 2010 Truth Commission has also raised some eyebrows from pundits, journalists, and myself; former Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr. Again I borrow the words of Ellen Tordesillas which expresses the apprehension about Davide’s appointment to head the commission, spot on:

Ang inaala-ala ko lang talaga ay ang pagpili ni P-Noy kay dating Chief Justice Hilario Davide para mamuno ng Commission. Wala talaga kasi akong bilib kay Davide. Paano mo naman respetuhin ang isang taong nagpasumpa sa pekeng presendente. Hindi lang yun. Nang nag-retire na siya sa Supreme Court, nagiging tagapatanggol pa siya ni Arroyo sa United Nations.

Nang binabatikos ang pamahalaan ni Arroyo sa extra-judicial killings, si Davide ang kanyang tagapagtanggol kasama ang isa pang sipsip kay Arroyo na nasa gabinete ngayon ni P-Noy: si Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo.

And Ellen is right, the public should be very watchful of the Truth Commission, whether it survives a challenge in the Supreme Court or not, the Marcoses may still be along way from paying for their crimes, we cannot allow the Arroyos to get away with theirs just because President Noynoy Aquino may have started off on the wrong foot. After all, we are all in this together for our nation and for our future.

Arroyo’s Legacy: More poor Filipinos

jhay — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:43:07 +0000

It took the nine years of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s term as President, for one of her advisers to admit a glaring and irrefutable fact: Filipinos are poorer now than even before GMA took office.

Arroyo’s economic adviser, Albay Gov. Joey Salceda said:

My biggest frustration as a presidential adviser is that 34 quarters of uninterrupted expansion in the past nine years did little to reduce poverty and the number of poor people.

All those figures touted by the Arroyo administration as “positive” economic figures are nothing but illusions as Salceda added to say:

these rosy figures cannot hide the fact that there are more poor people now than when the President started her term,

Despite posting “historical GDP growth” in history, the ones who benefited from all these are the wealthy business elite. On the other hand, more and more Filipino families sank into poverty.

Presidential candidates are crowing the same old mantra, that corruption is the number one problem of our country, rarely will you hear them say something that is based on real, hard facts: while it’s true that government officials like themselves are fattening their pockets through corruption, businesses are raking in profits by the billions. And at the end of the day, by looking closer at who are the owners and shareholders of these businesses, you’d find the 90% of the politicians running for the 2010 elections from Presidential candidates, to Senators to Representatives to the Lower House, even Governors.

It all points to one undeniable truth, the elite do the same thing, make profits in two different, yet interlinked ways, one is by becoming a government official and second, is by using the government to favor your business interests.

The scandals that dogged the Arroyo administration and her family are but just indicators that confirm what I’ve said before. While JDVIII’s sudden transformation from businessman to a crusader against corruption is a confirmation that for the country’s ruling business class, internal strife could lead to messy and ugly affairs.

All this unfolds like the selfish and greedy bickering between the gods and goddesses of the ancient world, while the ordinary folk suffer and continue to live in destitute.

Such is the enormous task of the next Chief Executive. Looking at what has happened and who’s running for the highest office in the land, I cannot help but get more gloomy as nothing really substantial separates them from the Arroyo, borne of the ruling elite or at present an entrenched member thereof, with only their sights fixed on corruption, among themselves, as the bane to the progress of the Filipinos, when at the root of it all is that it’s the same old economic policies they are carrying and actually proposing to be implemented should they win the mandate of the electorate. Truly, is there still hope?

Blog Action Day: No to #conass

jhay — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 23:59:06 +0000

No to ConAss!

It may be late in the day, but I join the many bloggers and Filipino netizens in expressing their rejection, disgust and opposition to the constituent assembly that may suddenly spring to life tomorrow at Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s last State of the Nation Address or SONA and plunge the country into further darkness and misery.

I’m not against Charter change per se, but if it is done with Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her minions still in power, it must be resisted, rejected and opposed for it will most likely result in GMA’s perpetuation in power as Prime Minister, effectively as dictator.

It is a trend that every time a sitting President’s term is about to end, and since the present Constitution prohibits him or her from being re-elected to second term, changing the Constitution itself takes center stage in the national debate and is most often, one of the focus points of the incumbent administration.

The argument that the country will benefit more and really progress under the watch of an authoritarian regime, as we experienced with the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, is at best, according to Minxin Pei, “an optical illusion”

“Dictatorship Has Given Asia an Advantage.”

No. Autocracies, mainly in East Asia, may seem to have made their countries prosperous. The so-called dragon economies of South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia under Suharto, and now China experienced their fastest growth under nondemocratic regimes. Frequent comparisons between China and India appear to support the view that a one-party state unencumbered by messy competitive politics can deliver economic goods better than a multiparty system tied down by too much democracy.

But Asia also has had many autocracies that have impoverished their countries-consider the tragic list of Burma, Pakistan, North Korea, Laos, Cambodia under the murderous Khmer Rouge, and the Philippines under Ferdinand Marcos. Even China is a mixed example. Before the Middle Kingdom emerged from self-imposed isolation and totalitarian rule in 1976, its economic growth was subpar. China under Mao also had the dubious distinction of producing the world’s worst famine.

Even when you look at autocracies credited with economic success, you find two interesting facts. First, their economic performance improved when they became less brutal and allowed greater personal and economic freedoms. Second, the keys to their successes were sensible economic policies, such as conservative macroeconomic management, infrastructural investment, promotion of savings, and pushing exports. Dictatorship really has no magic formula for economic development.

Comparing a one-party state like China with a democracy such as India is not an easy intellectual exercise. Obviously, India has many weaknesses: widespread poverty, poor infrastructure, and minimal social services. China appears to have done much better in these areas. But appearances can be deceiving. Dictatorships are good at concealing the problems they create while democracy is good at advertising its defects.

So the autocratic advantage in Asia is, at best, an optical illusion.

The argument that GMA is, at present and the foreseeable future, the best person to lead the country, manage the economy and carry out reforms in government, politics and public institutions is the surrender of any remaining hope in this country and the Filipino people.

GMA had nine years to leave a legacy, nine years to improve the lives of the people, particularly those living below the poverty line and at the margins of society.

Instead, we have an economy that is more dependent on the sweat, labor and sacrifices of OFWs and their precious remittances than ever. Convincing proof that the local economy is still unable to meet the needs of the people and sustain them.

Philippine Poverty Situationer 2008

View more presentations from Leland Joseph Dela Cruz.

In the more than nine years of the Arroyo administration, our agriculture remain backwards with local farmers still in poverty and their crops being drowned by foreign agriculture imports. Worse, land reform has all but collapsed under her watch. Adding insult to injury, the numerous cases of state abuses, enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings with peasant-leaders as victims have risen greatly during her term and such cases remain unsolved to this day.

Fighting corruption has been one of the mantras of her administration. But in all the nine years of her stay in power, she herself and her family had been involved in the many high-profile cases of corruption: the Philhealth cards, the fertilizer fund mess, the ridiculously expensive Diosdado Macapagal highway, the “Hello, Garci” tapes and the NBN-ZTE deal. All of which remain unsolved and the truth hidden from the public all because of her immunity as President and loyalty of her patrons in Congress and the bureaucracy. Transactional politics has become the defining term of her kind of governance.

With all the ghosts of her past now haunting her even more, her political survival has become her primary pre-occupation, not the welfare of the nation. That’s why Charter change is still very much alive and kicking. We just don’t know exactly how it will kick in, but at present, Conass seems to be her option.

That’s why we must stop, resist, reject and oppose any Charter change be it through a conass or con-con, as long as it is done under GMA’s watch.

No to Conass. No more of GMA!

Blog petition asking President Obama not to meet GMA

jhay — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 01:57:39 +0000

Just a quick and short one; just got notice of a blog petition urging US President Barack Obama not to meet with Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The blog is run by a New York-based Filipino who’s in the education field. It invites everyone to a healthy, objective discussion about the current situation the Philippines is under thanks to GMA and its relationship with the US and President Obama.

There’s this post citing ten reasons why Obama should not meet with GMA and it does have points presented in layman’s terms for easy digestion. Though I’m particularly interested in the details of point no. 6:

6. After being president for eight years, GMA has proven nothing.
Using critical, in-depth, academic analysis and evaluation, the plight of the Filipino people is NOT better than the time when her father, Diosdado Macapagal (God bless his soul), was president. That’s forty years of wasted opportunities.

Though we already know this, it would be interesting to know the details of how he/she has come up with the same conclusion.

As per the petition itself, which aims to garner 2 million signatures, is simply accomplished by leaving one’s name and present location. I do not know whether this would gain traction, succeed or even get noticed by the Obama Administration.

Interesting would be, the reaction of other bloggers, pundits, main stream media and even Malacañang itself.

Would you sign the petition? Do you agree that Obama should not meet with GMA?

When Typhoon Glo strikes

jhay — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:00:59 +0000

Asides from her credibility, morals and loyalty issues, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is known for her fiery temper which the media has extensively covered. We Filipinos call it, "katarayan" or, borrowing from Gov. Joey Salceda’s nomenclature, it’s called being "bitchy". The most recent episode is when she walked-out twice from a TV taping of a prepared statement on the recent hostilities in Mindanao, all because of the inefficiency of the staff.

<\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/div>";" alt="">

Ms Noemi takes a look at it from a positive view saying it could be caused by massive stress from being President (though I can’t say because how can you be stressed from being the President if you’re a fake President, but that’s for a whole new post) and dealing with all the things incumbent and accidental to it. She even offers some help with stress management.

What helps?

1. Focus on detachment.

2. Be open to healthy options for taking care of yourself if normal support is not available.

3. Take one day at a time to deal with feelings.

My unsolicited advice to GMA is take care of herself first. One is better able to cope with the most irregular circumstances and able to be there for others if one is caring for themselves. Maybe she knows has a solid plan in place but may need to be gently reminded every now and then. So here it is.

Though I’m with Ms Noemi that going on an eating binge, a healthy one, does help in relieving one’s self of stress, my unsolicited yet generous advice to GMA on dealing with stress is just simply resign from being President. (Though leaving Malacañan and never coming back would suffice because one could resign the Presidency if one is not a fake President)

It will relieve her of all the stresses of the Office and will definitely relieve us Filipinos from the stress of being dragged further down into a living hell and most especially, spare her staff from further torment and duress.