Merry money season starts

Man at the Market

Jesse E.L. Bacon II

10/27/2008

The newest impeachment complaint filed in the House of Representatives against Mrs. Arroyo by UP Law Prof. Harry Roque and businessman Jose “Joey” de Venecia III expectedly elicited varying reactions especially among those eyeing the presidency in 2010.

Even a sector of the populace who has grown tired with the previous impeachment complaints that were immediately muzzled by Mrs. Arroyo’s diehard supporters in the Lower House had expressed pessimism that the newest complaint will ever reach first base. The general consensus is that Mrs. Arroyo and her allies will do everything possible, fair or foul, legal or not, to have this complaint thrown into the trash can before any support for it snowballs.

It will not be a big surprise then if the Palace will once again cause the flooding of money, in cash or in the form of duly-funded projects for the congressmen’s favorite projects or even both, in the Lower House as what it had done in the past. And for sure, it’ll not just be the congressmen who’ll be favored by the Palace with pecuniary benefits but the local chief executives as well. The current Palace occupant is so used to buying the loyalty of anyone willing to exchange principle with 10 silver coins.

The Arroyo administration has an indisputable track record in this regard that is known to every Filipino the latest of which was the P500,000 distributed to provincial governors that included Pampanga’s Gov. Ed Panlilio. Panlilio, however, exposed this particular cash distribution done right in the presidential enclave. But until now this matter had remained fuzzy to everyone’s mind with all the investigations into the matter not having reached any final closure.

This likely event of cash flooding to the lower house and to the local chief executives will be the most serious threat to the Roque-De Venecia impeachment complaint not its form nor content. Roque is too smart to miss anything that had to do with form and substance when he and de Venecia prepared their complaint sheet against Mrs. Arroyo.

The second biggest obstacle that this impeachment suit had to hurdle is the presidential ambition of the four serious contenders, namely Sens. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, Loren Legarda and Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. The four will surely not welcome this development even if they will not publicly oppose the same.

Their fear that in the event Mrs. Arroyo is ousted from office, which is not farfetched given the gravity of her offense against the people, the laws of the land and the Constitution, the likely beneficiary of this would be Vice President Noli de Castro who is himself salivating at succeeding the incumbent President. The fear is on de Castro’s chance at mobilizing all government resources and political machinery to secure the presidency for him self he succeeds her before 2010.

But will all these justify not making Mrs. Arroyo accountable for all her sins to the people, her blatant violations of the law and her disregard of the Constitution with impunity?

Undeniably, all the charges leveled against Mrs. Arroyo had remained unresolved not because they were proven not to be true but because respondent Mrs. Arroyo did her best by using the powers of her office in thwarting any legal move to make her answer for all those charges. This is the naked truth. And considering that impeachment is basically a political undertaking as what Speaker Prospero Nograles had pointed out, the complainants are expected to resort to political maneuvers also to succeed this time.

Enlisting the endorsement of Rep. Jose de Venecia Jr. for the impeachment complaint is a step in the right direction. If there is anyone who knows how Mrs. Arroyo abused her office, it is the older De Venecia. Who knows this newest complaint will succeed this time.

(jelbacon@yahoo.com for reactions)

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