E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
Out of focus
Sunday, 08 17, 2003
The history of legislative investigation is replete with instances of abuse of this power, used by many for illegal ends, to browbeat or intimidate witnesses and many times for grandstanding purpose only. To correct these excesses, it is now provided that the power to conduct investigations must be exercised to enable Congress to legislate wisely. It is, in this light, that the subject matter of any legislative inquiry must be one on which Congress can legislate.
It was, therefore, a most welcome development when the Senate adopted Resolution 68, constituting itself, “As a committee of the whole to investigate and look into, in aid of legislation, the grievances of a number of young military officers and soldiers on alleged corruption, inequality and abuse of privileges in the military establishment and during a mutiny staged on July 27.” The objective of the Senate was clear: To look into the grievances of Trillanes, Gambala, et al. and craft legislation to remedy and address these grievances in order to prevent the occurrence of another mutiny.
Trillanes, Gambala, et al. had called attention to the legal sale of ammunition, bullets and war materiel to the forces of the New People’s Army, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Abu Sayyaf; misuse of public funds; the endemic graft and corruption in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP); the plan to declare martial law; and the staging of deadly bombings to justify more aid from the United States of America.
The Senate would have justified its constitution into a committee of the whole had it stayed focused on the grievances of Trillanes, Gambala, et al., that is, for the soldiers to be grilled on the details of their grievances and then ask them and other resource persons how best to address these grievances.
What transpired last Thursday, in full-view of the nation (on television), was a Senate that had lost its focus, determined instead to put the person and integrity of Trillanes, Gambala, et al. under scrutiny, rather than dissect their grievances which impelled them to go spontaneously to Oakwood. For the lynching they subjected the soldiers to, the senators, save those in the opposition who were in attendance, acted no differently from the despicable proceedings before the Feliciano Commission two days before, where the members of the commission were concerned more on how the soldiers should behave before it and give the respect due to it and the commander-in-chief of the AFP who constituted them. The grandstanding of its general counsel was another matter: He did not proceed to ferret out the truth and extent of the grievances of the soldiers, for he put them instead under the prosecutor’s scalpel of their imagined misdeeds, matters totally irrelevant and very far removed from the objective to address the grievances that the soldiers sought to be remedied.
The Senate is not a venue where one who seeks remedies from it must come with clean hands. That one’s imploring hands are sullied by some misdeed that has yet to be proved should not be used to discredit and disqualify him from getting the remedies that the Senate can mete out.
The spectacle of the mediocre senator debating with Trillanes on the difference between the incident at Oakwood from past military adventures in the 1986, 1987, 1989 and 2001 was an arrogant display of homecourt advantage that achieved nothing but portrayed him as apologist for the one that made him a senator. The senator met his match in Trillanes: When the latter had enough pontificating from the senator, he replied that the senator holds no moral ground to question anyone on the matter of violating the rules since the senator himself violated the rules when he and his companions walked out of the impeachment trial. The grievances took the backseat there.
Or, that pitiful senator, who has yet to do something concrete for the 15 million who voted him into office, getting his comeuppance from Trillanes, who would not be cowed by the senator who dug up the finances, business dealings and ownership of vehicles of Trillanes. Totally immaterial and where were the grievances there?
The analogy of corruption committed by the bureau director who offered to sell his wares to the department he is working for, to the offer of a sales agent for the FYI consulting firm owned by Trillanes and Gonzales, a former member of the immediate staff of the secretary of National Defense, may be good copy for smearing and putting to doubt the credibility of the idealistic, young soldiers, but it does not make the grievances of these soldiers any clearer, and any nearer to a solution. Address the grievances, sirs.
The Senate had all too suddenly become a hostile ground for the soldiers, rather than a neutral place where they could freely air what to them impelled 312 to occupy Oakwood and the thousands more under their command to move.
To be sure, some tried all they could to steer the proceedings back to sanity, and in accord with the objective of the investigation in aid of legislation. Sen. Sergio Osmeña developed his thesis well on the matter of corruption – that while everyone else sees the corruption, those expected to address them in the chain of command are not doing anything at all. Take note of the blue ribbon reports recommending the prosecution of officers established to have been involved in corrupt acts, who were not only not prosecuted, but even given promotional appointments, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel, Jr., with evidence in his hands, was able to draw out from the soldiers the extent of the corruption that they know about. Sen. Tessie Aquino-Oreta knew very well how to extract from the battle-scarred Maestrecampo his refusal to follow the illegal order from his superior to bomb mosques and his disbelief on why the war in Mindanao keeps being waged (for three decades now) despite the superiority of the forces of the Republic, all because of corruption that can only be committed if the war rages on.
The hearings will resume Thursday next week, and it will do well for the Senate to salvage some semblance of sanity (and earn the public’s respect) should it focus on what Resolution 68 hopes to achieve: To craft pertinent legislative measures to address the grievances of Trillanes, Gambala, et al..
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