DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
Manhandling Ping
Sunday, 08 25, 2002
The amount of vitriol heaped on Sen. Ping Lacson would have made a lesser man wilt under the tremendous pressure brought to bear on him.
But not Ping. He continues to weather all the assaults on his integrity, character and official position, the attack dogs and bugs notwithstanding. Sure, they irritate him – forcing him to defend himself with the only available weapon at his disposal as senator, the privilege speech – but that is all they can do to him.
Ping has already weathered the Mawanay-Corpus attacks. Mary Ong’s charges turned out to be real bad, an aberration from the very start. They all were discredited. The alleged multimillion-dollar accounts in Citibank New York turned out to be a dud, which the accusers now woefully claim to have been buried under the rubble of the Twin Towers. Allegations of drug-trafficking, protection of drug lords and kidnapping for ransom have all turned out to be tall tales. Now comes the alleged violation of the law requiring the filing of statement of assets and liabilities (SAL) and a related perjury charge.
That the charges against Ping have been downgraded to a mere violation of the requirement of filing of a SAL, for which he will not even be arrested considering that the imposable penalty for this is less than six years imprisonment, reflects sadly on the lack of basis of the earlier graver charges against Ping.
The whole government machinery appears to have been brought to bear on Ping. So far, not so good results. No success, for not a bit of truth to the charges has been proved.
The SAL is a requirement under Republic Act 6713. The charge against Ping on this cannot stick. He has the certification to show that he did file for the years 1996, 1997 and 1998. He has copies of the SAL. The charge for perjury is related to his alleged non-declaration in his SAL of his investment in a US-based company, the Orient Light Forwarding Company. But his SAL for 2001 already includes this. What gives to all these oversight of our investigators? Grossly sloppy sleuthing, if ever there was one.
Investigative work requires a modicum of intelligence, and a ton of common sense. But when this work is beclouded by a bias beforehand, the conclusion arrived at after the investigation will always be pre-conceptually warped. It will not stand in court; in fact, it cannot be believed. Soon, it will be forgotten, and the investigators will end up the losers. It is in this context that the charges against Ping will end up.
One may argue that Ping is no saint, given his checkered career in the PNP and the defunct PACC, but from the way he is being handled now by his political adversaries, Ping could easily be a martyr. His parliamentary privileges as senator may not exactly insulate him from charges filed against him, but he is lucky that these charges, despite full media coverage, do not wash. The increasing decibel of accusations, no matter how baseless, only make Ping, in the consciousness of the public, an irksome thorn on the butts of the powers-that-be.
For a government that appears to have adopted public humiliation as a policy instrument against its adversaries and those suspected of committing even the least of crimes, its handling of Ping exhibits a complete lack of common sense and achieves exactly the opposite of what they set out to do. As it continues to humiliate Ping with all sorts of canards, the more Ping is projected to a level and class that his detractors do not want him to be in.
The agenda against Ping is very obvious: Bury him under a barrage of unsubstantiated charges to the point where he will be totally pre-occupied defending himself and thereby forego his duties as a legislator, discrediting him in the process. But to this observer, while Ping has manfully handled the attacks against him, he has not abandoned his duties at the Senate. He records a perfect attendance in plenary sessions, and continues to be active in committee hearings. His incisive interpellations on crucial bills under deliberation are several notches above what is expected of neophytes in the Senate.
A martyr gains a lot of followers as he continues to suffer; the followers soon become advocates of the martyr; the advocates then generate more followers. And the cycle continues. By the way Ping is being handled mishandled and manhandled, the attack dogs and bugs had better watch out; they will only have themselves to blame. It would be well for them to remember that one of a martyr’s scourges is to end up being canonized by the very persons who burned him.
Our senators are elected for a fixed term. They should be allowed to work, unhampered by the Dirty Tricks Department whose unconfirmed secretary is reportedly an alien. White scandal sheets and baseless charges against our senators must be done away with. Public humiliation to sully their speculated future political directions must stop. Let our senators work.
For comments about this website:Webmaster@tribune.net.ph
But not Ping. He continues to weather all the assaults on his integrity, character and official position, the attack dogs and bugs notwithstanding. Sure, they irritate him – forcing him to defend himself with the only available weapon at his disposal as senator, the privilege speech – but that is all they can do to him.
Ping has already weathered the Mawanay-Corpus attacks. Mary Ong’s charges turned out to be real bad, an aberration from the very start. They all were discredited. The alleged multimillion-dollar accounts in Citibank New York turned out to be a dud, which the accusers now woefully claim to have been buried under the rubble of the Twin Towers. Allegations of drug-trafficking, protection of drug lords and kidnapping for ransom have all turned out to be tall tales. Now comes the alleged violation of the law requiring the filing of statement of assets and liabilities (SAL) and a related perjury charge.
That the charges against Ping have been downgraded to a mere violation of the requirement of filing of a SAL, for which he will not even be arrested considering that the imposable penalty for this is less than six years imprisonment, reflects sadly on the lack of basis of the earlier graver charges against Ping.
The whole government machinery appears to have been brought to bear on Ping. So far, not so good results. No success, for not a bit of truth to the charges has been proved.
The SAL is a requirement under Republic Act 6713. The charge against Ping on this cannot stick. He has the certification to show that he did file for the years 1996, 1997 and 1998. He has copies of the SAL. The charge for perjury is related to his alleged non-declaration in his SAL of his investment in a US-based company, the Orient Light Forwarding Company. But his SAL for 2001 already includes this. What gives to all these oversight of our investigators? Grossly sloppy sleuthing, if ever there was one.
Investigative work requires a modicum of intelligence, and a ton of common sense. But when this work is beclouded by a bias beforehand, the conclusion arrived at after the investigation will always be pre-conceptually warped. It will not stand in court; in fact, it cannot be believed. Soon, it will be forgotten, and the investigators will end up the losers. It is in this context that the charges against Ping will end up.
One may argue that Ping is no saint, given his checkered career in the PNP and the defunct PACC, but from the way he is being handled now by his political adversaries, Ping could easily be a martyr. His parliamentary privileges as senator may not exactly insulate him from charges filed against him, but he is lucky that these charges, despite full media coverage, do not wash. The increasing decibel of accusations, no matter how baseless, only make Ping, in the consciousness of the public, an irksome thorn on the butts of the powers-that-be.
For a government that appears to have adopted public humiliation as a policy instrument against its adversaries and those suspected of committing even the least of crimes, its handling of Ping exhibits a complete lack of common sense and achieves exactly the opposite of what they set out to do. As it continues to humiliate Ping with all sorts of canards, the more Ping is projected to a level and class that his detractors do not want him to be in.
The agenda against Ping is very obvious: Bury him under a barrage of unsubstantiated charges to the point where he will be totally pre-occupied defending himself and thereby forego his duties as a legislator, discrediting him in the process. But to this observer, while Ping has manfully handled the attacks against him, he has not abandoned his duties at the Senate. He records a perfect attendance in plenary sessions, and continues to be active in committee hearings. His incisive interpellations on crucial bills under deliberation are several notches above what is expected of neophytes in the Senate.
A martyr gains a lot of followers as he continues to suffer; the followers soon become advocates of the martyr; the advocates then generate more followers. And the cycle continues. By the way Ping is being handled mishandled and manhandled, the attack dogs and bugs had better watch out; they will only have themselves to blame. It would be well for them to remember that one of a martyr’s scourges is to end up being canonized by the very persons who burned him.
Our senators are elected for a fixed term. They should be allowed to work, unhampered by the Dirty Tricks Department whose unconfirmed secretary is reportedly an alien. White scandal sheets and baseless charges against our senators must be done away with. Public humiliation to sully their speculated future political directions must stop. Let our senators work.
For comments about this website:Webmaster@tribune.net.ph
No comments:
Post a Comment