NOYNOY'S UNJUST DIKTAT
MANILA, MARCH 17, 2011 (MALAYA) BY Nestor Mata - 'Respect for the Constitution, fairness and impartiality are not in the vocabulary of Noynoy Aquino and his sheepish political allies in Congress.'
WHAT'S happening these days – watching a president obsessed with wreaking havoc against the Supreme Court's chief justice and his associates, openly barking diktats to his political allies in both houses of Congress to impeach a constitutionally independent Ombudsman, and petulantly lambasting critics in media – would have shocked Ramon Magsaysay, if he were with us today.
Indeed, Magsaysay, who died in a plane crash in Cebu exactly 54 years ago today, so believed in the "majesty of constitutional and legal processes… and in fairness and impartiality" which were in his Credo of governance that he faithfully followed for three years and three months as the third president of the Third Republic.
Alas, respect for the Constitution, due process, fairness and impartiality are not in the vocabulary of Noynoy Aquino, the 15th president, and his fawning party mates and reverent cohorts in Congress!
In the now controversial case of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, instead of following the principle of separation of powers, Aquino intruded into legislative affairs by giving marching order to his loyal congressional henchmen to impeach her. And, instead of following the legal principle of due process, they resorted to trial by publicity.
In their jaundiced eyes, the Ombudsman was guilty already, even before the start of her trial for impeachment before the Senate. In other words, they acted like judges, jury and executioners all rolled into one!
In the House Committee on Justice, its chairman was like a knight in tainted armor when he accused and declared the distressed Gutierrez guilty of "betrayal of public trust." He was oblivious of the fact that he and 117, out of 150 other representatives, including their Speaker of the House, are facing charges before the Office of the Ombudsman.
Likewise, in the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, its chairman blurted out, too, that Gutierrez was guilty of "betrayal of public trust." He urged her to step down to "spare the country this conflict for the sake of justice and truth" even before the House impeachment case reached the Senate.
And, Aquino's mouthpieces in Malacañang Palace and his
Secretary of Justice also chanted, "Resign…spare the nation the trauma of having to go through a painful impeachment process."
Upon hearing these remarks, one pundit, one of the few that used to sing glowing paeans to Noynoy, this time asked, cynically, "painful for whom?" To us the whole spectacle was absolutely hilarious and ridiculous and harrowing all at the same time!
When the remarks of the Blue Ribbon Committee chairman reached his ears, the President of the Senate, like a pater famillias, chided the neophyte senator and gently told him "…not to influence the Senate to just follow like sheep and go ahead and remove the Ombudsman… Our primary duty as an impeachment court is not only to hear the evidence in a fair, transparent trial, but also to see to it that we render justice."
Indeed, how in heaven's name can Aquino's confreres in the Senate and House chambers be impartial judges when they have made up their minds and pronounced the Ombudsman already guilty of "betrayal of public trust" sans fair play, impartiality, and due process as mandated by the Constitution?
Not only are these precepts of democracy not in their political vocabulary, as we noted above, they are also purveyors of hate and vengeance!
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Quote of the Day: "What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others." – Pericles
Thought of the Day: ""Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other." – John Fitzgerald Kennedy
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