Pimentel, the principled politician

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Pimentel, the principled politician
Sunday, 06 18, 2006

"Thank you, Nene, for telling us your story. While it evokes nostalgia in those of us who marched with you during the martial law years, it should inspire current and future generations of leaders to take the road less traveled and march to the different drum of principled politics.” Thus runs former President Corazon Aquino’s concluding line in her foreword to Sen. Aquilino Pimentel’s book Martial Law in the Philippines: My Story.

The words are not empty praise or mere lip service from one politician to another. They sum up the valor of a generation that faced the stinging spray of the water cannon, the dull pain of the blunt edge of the police truncheon, and mortal threat of the deliberately misfired gun. It brings back the anxieties of having to face another day without the threat of arrest and detention, and yet the courage to rush into hellish situations to face a seemingly unbeatable foe.

It has been a full generation since the interesting times vividly brought back to life by the book. Those who lived that generation — people who refuse to forget and people too young to remember — should not be without a copy of this volume. For despite its title, it is not simply Nene’s story but theirs as well. Nene does not take all the credit for himself in the 540 pages of the book that details the 14-year struggle to topple a dictatorship. With typical generosity, he mentions the significant contributions of Romeo Capulong and his band of brothers in the legal profession, the indefatigable wives of the incarcerated members of the opposition, and hitherto unknown names such as Lutgardo Barbo. As disdainful as he is generous, he heaps scorn on the self-serving transformation of many rabid Marcos supporters to rabid oppositionist when the winds of change came blowing their way.

While the book is instructive of the lessons of the past, it might as well serve as a cautionary message to those who are tempted to repeat the tragic mistakes of people in high places and who want to forever stay there. At a time when we find ourselves once again under the same clime of excessive and unconstitutional use of power, under a similar, if not much worse, regime that Nene faced off in his prime, the book is a must read. It extols the honor and duty of fighting a corrupt government, the determination of a righteous few ranged against the powerful many, and the resolute will of the Filipino that he will not merely survive dictators but prevail over them.

Too, the book is instructive of this maverick’s honor and responsibility in the face of circumstances that seem to try men’s souls. In the chapter on the celebrated Quintero Exposé, for instance, Nene vividly narrates how he, as then member of the anti-Marcos bloc in the Constitutional Convention of 1971, tangled head-on with the power of money that corrupted the minds of overwhelming numbers of delegates to craft a Constitution that would allow Marcos to stay in power beyond the end of his second term as President.

Through relentless sniping, dogged exposure of the sordid details of the payola dished out wholesale to members of the Constitutional Convention, and a masterful use of parliamentary tactics, the quixotic Nene and his intrepid band of Sancho Panzas were able to extract from Quintero the identities of the dispensers and the source of the political lagniappe in that infamous convention. Nene, then as now, made full use of his legal training and his Jesuit upbringing to shred the cloak of invincibility of those who arrogantly clothe themselves with the trappings of power.

Particularly evocative of nostalgia for those times of living dangerously were Nene’s repeated brushes with arrest and detention. He was never afraid of being arrested; in fact, he seemed to relish it. In this day and age of indiscriminate and warrantless arrests, the arrestees should learn from Nene: You can live with arrest. It is the arresting officer who will not live to gloat on it. Take the case of the police and military goons who manhandled Nene. They have gone, yet Nene is still around.

Elsewhere in the book, Nene’s account of how he slew the political Goliaths of Mindanao should be taken as a lesson in tenacity and the triumph of truth. How he, with meager resources, was able to win a lopsided battle with these giants is a desiderata that every budding politician must adopt, to propagate the culture of decent politics that Nene espoused.

Count on Nene to live and relive his part. As senator in a miniscule minority, Nene now, as he was then, is at once undeniably credible when he raises that trademark gravelly voice to denounce the grinding corruption in our midst. That voice rings true all over the book: here in individual details are countless instances when corruption was the norm. It is passing strange, but they seem contemporary; only the names in the dramatis personae have changed, but the positions in the bureaucracy are disturbingly similar.

Many of those who struggled with Nene were present during the launch of the book, and they who have come to their own prominence now stand as living symbols of lives that Nene somehow influenced. Nene should stand proud today as senator of the Republic. He has outlived his adversaries, and looks like he might even outlive newer foes.

How uncanny that in an article we wrote about Nene on March 2, 2003, we said then of this principled politician, this patriot from Batac, Ilocos Norte and Cagayan de Oro City: “The senator’s political life has always been characterized by an unconditional willingness to do what is honorable, generous and responsible as a response to a chaotic situation. This virtue is where his credibility lies: He calls everyone as he is, without any attempt at dissimulation or subterfuge.”

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