MALAYA EDITORIAL: JUST DO IT!
MANILA, NOVEMBER 9, 2011 (MALAYA) EDITORIAL - Just do it
('It can very well toss a coin and be done with it. One way or the other, the Palace cannot please everybody.')
THE Palace is needlessly agonizing over whether to allow Gloria Arroyo to seek medical treatment abroad. It can uphold the hold order issued by the Department of Justice. Or it can lift the same. It can very well toss a coin and be done with it. One way or the other, the Palace cannot please everybody.
The weakness of the government position lies in the failure of the DOJ to file a case against Arroyo. Hence, Arroyo's inclusion in the hold order list is under question before the Supreme Court with the likelihood that her petition for a temporary restraining order would be granted by a cooperative magistrate.
If she flies the coop courtesy of the Supreme Court, then that's it. She reportedly has arranged for a safe haven in a Caribbean country with which the Philippines does not have an extradition treaty. She might be found guilty of plunder or electoral sabotage, among other capital crimes, in absentia. But she would not serve a day in jail for the crimes she has inflicted on the people during her nine-year stay in office.
That – making Gloria pay for her crime – is what the issue is all about. It has nothing to do with her constitutional right to travel. Or her right to be treated by a doctor of her choice.
Gloria does not want to spend her remaining life in jail. She will do everything in her powers to escape judgment and sentence. That's the quintessential Gloria, she who's guided only by the calculus of cost and personal benefit. A martyr who would gladly suffer to uphold higher principles? Gloria is none of that sort, folks.
The leadership, unfortunately, tends to engage Gloria and her defenders on the latter's terms. Justice Secretary Leila de Lima says she is prepared to defend her power to place a person in the hold order list. At the same time, she allows that her position is subject to the review of the President Aquino.
Obviously, De Lima and the people in the Cabinet continue to be obsessed about legal niceties. This only sets them up for a fall courtesy of a pro-Gloria court. They should instead shift the ground for battle to the public arena where no amount of lying can save Gloria.
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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