The truth of the matter - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

The truth of the matter - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Theres The Rub
The truth of the matter


By Conrado de Quiros
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:54:00 08/01/2010

Filed Under: State of the Nation Address (SONA), Benigno Aquino III, Politics


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Close this EDCEL Lagman complains. In a “counter-Sona” he delivered in Congress, he slammed P-Noy’s Sona thus: “Instead of being a blueprint for development and policy direction, the Sona was generally a partisan press release, a complaint sheet, a compendium of motherhood statements and a continuation of campaign rhetoric.” Where he expected P-Noy to move the country forward, he saw him only move it backward.

He follows that up with another complaint. “Only we in the Philippines will create an aberration (the Truth Commission) that will investigate graft and corruption when there are existing prosecutorial and judicial agencies [with] the constitutional mandate to do all of this.”

Joker Arroyo complains as well. The Truth Commission, he says, has no leg to stand on. “(As the product of an) executive order, it does not have the force of law.” Only Congress is empowered to create commissions.

The two used to be my two favorite feisty Bicolanos before they stopped being feisty, if not being Bicolanos, and became merely annoying. Before they went from fighting Marcos to defending GMA, a fall from a bang to a whimper, a plunge from the sublime to the paralytic. Lagman’s criticism of P-Noy’s Sona is particularly hilarious. The first question you ask is: As opposed to what? To GMA’s Sonas, which he applauded heartily?

Refusing to talk about a smooth transition—GMA delivered her last Sona a week before Cory died and still entertained staying on—is a blueprint for development and policy direction? Praising the hooligans who helped her steal the vote is not a partisan press release? Complaining about the people who complained about her, who were mostly Filipinos, is not a complaint sheet? Talking of making this country an Enchanted Kingdom by 2020—she meant to last that long—is not a motherhood statement? Well, maybe “I … am … sorry” is not campaign rhetoric.

As to the legality of executive orders, didn’t they agree wholeheartedly to GMA’s edicts that said no public official might testify against her without her permission, no one might tell the Senate she pushed a shady deal on grounds of executive privilege, and “Hello Garci” was a mere “lapse in judgment”?

Edwin Lacierda answers Joker-Lagman’s challenge of the Truth Commission this way: “It’s not a question of whether the Chief Executive can create a commission. I think that’s a given. I think it’s a concern of whether some powers can be done through executive or legislative fiat.” He misses the point.

In fact, a Truth Commission is not just a legal option, it is a political imperative. A Truth Commission is not just an ordinary commission to ferret out the truth about the wrongful commissions GMA’s pals got from her. It is an extraordinary commission to ferret out the truth about the wrong that was the GMA regime. It is not just another anti-corruption body to recover the loot that was stolen from us, it is a historic body to recover the life that was stolen from us—and give justice to those whose lives were literally stolen from them.

A Truth Commission is there to make sure no other GMA, or Marcos, will come again.

If it’s just another anti-corruption body, then true enough it merely duplicates the work of the DOJ and Ombudsman. If it’s just another commission, then true enough it falls under the legal strictures circumscribing the creation of commissions. The Truth Commission is not. A Truth Commission does not. That is what allowed Raul Alfonsin to create his Truth Commission, to set out the truth about the forced disappearances in Argentina. That is what allowed Nelson Mandela to create his Truth Commission, to set out the truth about apartheid in South Africa. That is what has allowed other leaders to create their Truth Commissions, to make their people, and the world, see the depth of evil wreaked by the old order, and seeing thus be moved to vow, “Never again!”

The Philippines, quite incidentally, has entered Wikipedia among the 18 countries that have formed Truth Commissions. The entry simply states: “In 2010, President-elect Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino announced that a truth commission will be formed to investigate unresolved issues in the Philippines.”

I’ve always thought our own Truth Commission—I was the first to call for it, and have insisted on it all these years, arguing that we would need that kind of cleansing after GMA departs, peacefully or violently, by election or by revolution—would quite simply and literally set out the truth about GMA’s rule. The truth was the greatest casualty all these years. The truth was the first murder victim all these years. GMA’s rule was a rule of lies. It buried the truth along with the dead bodies of activists and journalists and the victims of the Maguindanao massacre. It buried the truth along with Jun Lozada who nearly ended up a dead body after being kidnapped and fully ended up a fugitive in La Salle Greenhills. It buried the truth along with the people’s will in the 2004 elections.

We need to exhume the truth like we need to exhume the bodies of the dead.

The way to go forward is to go backward. That of course will not be understandable, or recognizable, to someone used to applauding GMA, who imagines it is going forward to say, like GMA’s bishops, “Let’s move on,” after someone has stolen the vote, after someone has stolen lives, after someone has stolen hope. Life does not move on from unpunished wrongdoing, it is nailed to its spot, frozen like a statue till the cracks form in the stone, cast in the miasma of death. Life moves on from cleansing the past, redressing the past, recovering the past. Till it flows into the present and promises a future, life moves on from justice. That is what a Truth Commission is for.

That is the truth of the matter.