GMA to face Truth Commission | The Philippine Star >> News >> Headlines

GMA to face Truth Commission The Philippine Star >> News >> Headlines


GMA to face Truth Commission By Marvin Sy (The Philippine Star) Updated July 30, 2010 12:00 AM Comments (35)
MANILA, Philippines - Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will cooperate in an investigation by the Truth Commission into alleged misdeeds when she was president. “We don’t want to escape all the forums where we can possibly explain our side. Because the way everything is going on right now, things are coming out in the media, and we all know that there may be some things or context missed out, so these bodies are better because our side will be heard,” Mrs. Arroyo’s spokeswoman, Elena Bautista-Horn, said yesterday.
When asked whether the former president would participate in the proceedings of the Truth Commission, Bautista-Horn said, “Definitely.”
“But we are also interested in the parameters (of the panel’s investigation) because they must be able to show evidence, not only talk,” she said.
Bautista-Horn said Arroyo may not have to appear personally to testify and may only be represented by a lawyer.
She noted that the body has yet to be formed since President Aquino announced it in his inaugural speech last June 30.
In his first State of the Nation Address on Monday, the President said he would be signing an executive order this week creating the body to be headed by former chief justice Hilario Davide.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman warned that President Aquino could run into constitutional trouble with his plan to create the Truth Commission through an executive order.
“I think they are having difficulties to justify the creation of that commission in the face of possible constitutional infirmities,” Lagman said of what he called delays in the issuance of the EO.
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He said the power to create agencies or commissions as well as their funding belongs to Congress “and they (Palace) will find it hard to justify why they will use executive fiat.”
“We in the Philippines are going to create an aberration of a truth commission to investigate cases of graft and corruption where there are already existing agencies, prosecutorial and judicial agencies which have the statutory and constitutional mandate to do all of these and it will just duplicate, if not, supersede, their functions,” Lagman said.
He said the findings of the Truth Commission would practically be useless as the concerned judicial and prosecutorial agencies would not take them “hook, line and sinker” but conduct their independent evaluation of them.
Mrs. Arroyo’s brother-in-law, Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo, for his part, said he was wondering why their family was being singled out.
He said the Truth Commission should investigate past administrations and other unresolved issues like the massacre and land dispute at the Hacienda Luisita owned by the Aquinos.
“Nobody is afraid of the truth and the truth will set you free. The Truth Commission should not limit itself to the Arroyo family,” he said.
“Why doesn’t it investigate other administrations?” he asked.
“It’s not like the Arroyos are the only issues in the Philippines, there are other issues, like the Luisita cases, and other issues, so if you want to get to the truth, get to the bottom of all of these,” he said.
Think twice, Palace told
Sen. Joker Arroyo said the Palace should think twice about creating the Truth Commission through an EO.
“Anything that the President does via EO does not have the force of law. In other words, it cannot compel attendance, it cannot compel anything, it can only invite. It will have no subpoena powers,” Sen. Arroyo said.
“That will be a toothless commission,” he added.
He said he expects anyone summoned by the Truth Commission to challenge its constitutionality right away.
The President, apparently informed about such concern, was quoted as saying that “the subpoenas will have to come from the legislature.”
“I would think that the best way to do it is to form a commission that is enacted by Congress with teeth and the safeguards,” Sen. Arroyo said.
He stressed that the creation of the Presidential Commission on Good Government by Aquino’s mother, the late former President Corazon Aquino, through an EO was different.
Sen. Arroyo said the late president’s administration was operating under the so-called Freedom Constitution, meaning whatever she enacted had the force of law.
Sen. Arroyo, then Mrs. Aquino’s executive secretary, said EO No. 1, authored by former Senate President Jovito Salonga, was challenged before the Supreme Court but was eventually sustained as a legal issuance.
“So I’m even wondering why Chief Justice (Hilario) Davide is not saying ‘let Congress first enact a law.’ Because with this one, I don’t think Davide will get anywhere. I would have thought that he should,” the senator said.
“No matter who heads that, if the body itself has no power it is a useless thing. The success or failure of the body, the Truth Commission, will not depend upon who the chairman is. It will depend upon the powers that it has. If it has no powers, you can put the smartest lawyers, but it will not succeed,” he added.
EO is enough
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, however, insisted there was no need for a law to back up the creation of the Truth Commission.
“Let us remember that this proposed Truth Commission is a fact-finding body and its powers would be merely recommendatory,” De Lima told a press conference.
“It will not be a body that would adjudge people as guilty or not. What’s important is information and evidence are collected,” she said.
De Lima said the Truth Commission would have the power to compel individuals to attend its hearings and cooperate in the investigation.
She revealed that a mechanism was being worked out to make uncooperative officials and other individuals liable for contempt either through a court order or depending on parameters laid down in the soon-to-be issued EO.
She said the creation of the commission through an EO is “legally defensible” and that a law might only be necessary to “shield (the body) from objections and questions on certain aspects, including constitutionality.”
She also explained that the Palace had opted to create the body through an EO to expedite the procedure.
She appealed to Sen. Arroyo and other critics to “give the truth commission a chance.”
“Those who are raising doubts about its effectiveness, saying it will be toothless, I’d like to believe these are people with good intentions, that they want a stronger body. And of course, we all want that it will have some teeth,” she said.
Promise of cooperation
Barely a day after his release from military detention, former Marine Col. Ariel Querubin expressed his willingness to help the Truth Commission shed light on the alleged participation of some military officers in the alleged massive cheating in the 2004 presidential elections.
Interviewed by reporters at his quarters at Camp Aguinaldo, Querubin said that as a Marine brigade commander in Lanao, several officers had sought his help or advice regarding the election anomalies perpetrated by some of their colleagues.
He said that even a United States military officer assigned in Tawi-Tawi had reported to him alleged cases of ballot snatching staged by soldiers.
Querubin was detained along with 26 other officers and 40 enlisted Scout Ranger personnel, for reportedly plotting to topple the Arroyo government in February 2006.
“While I haven’t actually seen these ballot snatching and other form of election anomalies committed by the Marines in Tawi-Tawi, I became the repository of information of people who were involved or witnesses to these massive electoral fraud,” Querubin said.
“In my own little way, if called by the Truth Commission I can probably share with them the names or even convince these people to appear before the commission,” he said.
Marine Corps commandant Maj. Gen. Juancho Sabban also said his troops are ready to reveal everything they know about the alleged cheating in the 2004 elections to the Truth Commission.
“Basically it’s almost an order because the commission was created by our commander in chief (President Aquino),” he told GMA 7 News.
“Following the doctrine of the chain of command, they (Marines) should appear before the Truth Commission. If they want the truth, the Marines will give them the truth,” he added.
Sabban is a member of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Class ‘78, of which Arroyo is an honorary member.
“We will let the Truth Commission find out so as not to preempt their investigation,” Sabban said in a separate interview. - With Jaime, Laude, Alexis Romero and Edu Punay