DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
Doubt not Sonny
Sunday, 10 20, 2002
“Our doubt are traitors
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt.”
-Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
Sen. Ed Angara, principal author and sponsor of the Ombudsman Act of 1989, describes the Ombudsman as the “watchdog of the bureaucracy.” And in a bureaucracy such as ours where the State often takes a nonchalant attitude toward the conduct by which bureaucrats conduct their affairs, it falls on the Ombudsman the duty to administer justice among bureaucrats who conduct their own affairs. Angara has envisioned the Ombudsman as a politically independent and impartial watchdog. This expectation, unfortunately, was dashed to pieces by the last person to don the robes of this noble office, who was perceived as more deeply into politics than out of it.
The past seven years with the last Ombudsman have not been brief; they were years we spent wishing that the passage of months would be mercifully swift toward the day when the occupant shall reach the end of his tenure. That day has not been long past. Now, we have a new Ombudsman – Solicitor General Simeon V. Marcelo.
But even before Marcelo could take his oath of office, he is now being pilloried for his association with Sigma Rho and the CV&C, reportedly the most influential law firm in the country. What more, it looks like he has to overcome the suspicion – the contempt even – with which a number of people regard the Office of the Ombudsman.
Perhaps it is too true that suspicion is a nasty habit that a very few of us could entertain without letting this hypothesis become, in our minds, a fact. But at this stage, doubts regarding Marcelo’s political independence and impartiality look a bit too much and too soon.
Marcelo’s association with CV&C and the Sigma Rho may have been his ticket to the Office of the Ombudsman, but he has his own merits that should not detract observers. Sonny, as we call him in the Sigma Rho, is very much his own man when it comes to face-off confrontations. I should know – both of us while in college had gone to many battles in the UP Diliman campus and elsewhere, and continue to this day in that kind that takes place only within the civil confines of the courtroom.
This Sigma Rhoan – with whom we spent many late nights, during the martial law years, at the Liwayway Printery along Calero Street in Sta. Cruz, writing stirring editorials for the Philippine Collegian in a period of living dangerously – is out to prove his detractors wrong.
Sonny, a bar topnotcher, has acquitted himself well as a member of the legal profession. He honed his litigation skills at ACCRA, then joined the CV&C as its chief litigator. His 23 years as a lawyer saw him get involved in high-profile cases, and at the same time gave him the opportunity to practice pro-bono – food for the soul, he says – having been the head of the legal aid program of the IBP.
The millions who witnessed the impeachment trial know this: Sonny does not run away from a good fight. As lead prosecutor, Sonny did what he must, in the best way he could - an honorable lawyer being true to his oath. He did not seek the glare of publicity; he was shoved right into that historic trial, against the most formidable legal luminaries of the country.
With 27 years behind him as a member of the Sigma Rho, 20 years in the CV&C, it was just a matter of time for Sonny to step into the frame of destiny. In the “weather-weather” climate that now sadly besets Philippine politics, Sonny should have been swaggering, and glad-handing everyone, on the day he was appointed. Instead, this ex-seminarian rushed to the Don Bosco Chapel to pray for divine guidance, that he may administer the laws of man in the light of the laws of God.
The hierarchy of values that every Sigma Rhoan imbibes should serve Sonny well. It is not a flippancy to liken him to a gentleman warrior in legendary Camelot, where once reigned fair play, justice and the obligation to do the duty that accompanies every right. Sonny is the knight who would slay the dragons of vice and corruption; put fear in the heart of miscreants. And in the tradition of Sigma Rhoans, he will not hesitate to joust with fraternal opponents in fights where things must be set aright. Sigma Rho respects all colors – reds, opposition, administration, civil society, etc. – and colors are never a hindrance to seek the right. Consider, if you will, Johny Ponce Enrile and Fidel Agcaoili squaring off during martial law, or Ed Angara and Frank Drilon coming at each other hammer and thongs from opposite sides in the Senate. Sigma Rhoans all, but when they have to, they fight each other. So will Sonny, against anyone, your association with him notwithstanding.
Indeed, his past associations should be acknowledged for what they have been to Sonny: Training ground that nurtured his intelligence and strengthened his independence of mind. His complete lack of political inclination – a rare trait, if I may say so, among the partners of his former law firm – is indicative of where he will bring the Office of the Ombudsman under his term.
Sonny will possibly take his oath before a barangay captain in rustic Sta. Rosa, Nueva Ecija, where he grew up a poor boy. That will be the ultimate statement on what this man for others will be as Ombudsman: firmly rooted in the basics of simplicity, openness, honesty, fairness and determination to make good.
Someone once said that we have to distrust each other; it is our only defense against betrayal. But let not this distrust be directed against Sonny – not just yet. It is too soon for us to judge him. Let us judge him by what he will do – or fails or refuses to do.
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