MANILA - Philippine President Benigno
Aquino, who rose to power on a corruption-busting pledge, has to date failed to
live up to his election campaign reform rhetoric.
That could change if his government's dogged
pursuit of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo leads to an evidence-based
prosecution.
Arroyo stands accused by Aquino's government
of amassing billions of dollars worth of ill-gotten assets and properties
during her nine-year tenure. She and her husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, are
expected to face at least six charges of economic plunder, including
accusations they received kickbacks on a US$329 million national broadband
network contract tendered to China's ZTE Corp.
The former first couple also stand accused of
masterminding a fertilizer fund scam by which they allegedly funneled 728
million pesos (US$16.8 million) worth of state funds into Arroyo's 2004
presidential election campaign, a poll she won in a narrow result. Both of them
are also being investigated for electoral cheating during 2007 polls. Arroyo
faced down various impeachment motions on similar election fraud charges while
in power.
Arroyo, currently a member of congress, has so
far avoided prosecution under Aquino's watch. Her critics say that's because
the Supreme Court is still stacked with her political appointees, including
Chief Justice Renato Corona, a former Arroyo chief of staff and official
spokesman. They argue Corona's appointment, made towards the tail end of
Arroyo's tenure, was specifically designed to protect her from lawsuits once
she stepped down from power.
Since he took office in 2010, Aquino's efforts
to net corrupt politicians and bureaucrats have failed to gain significant
traction - despite the Philippines' perennial ranking as one of Asia's most
corrupt countries. Arroyo's advocates argue Aquino's administration is engaged
in a witch-hunt to distract attention from its failure to honor its many reform
promises.
Former presidents Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph
Estrada both faced charges of massive economic plunder, but their convictions
have utterly failed to eradicate the country's endemic corruption levels.
Arroyo's government pursued the plunder charges against Estrada, but eventually
granted the former populist leader an amnesty on a vow he would not return to
politics.
Arroyo is arguably in a better legal position
to fight the charges. Her continued influence over the judiciary has put the
Supreme Court on a collision course with the Department of Justice (DoJ). Last
month, the DoJ ignored a temporary restraining order issued by the Supreme
Court against travel restrictions on Arroyos so as to allow them to travel
abroad for medical treatment; the ruling invalidated an earlier hold order
issued by the DoJ against their traveling abroad while under investigation.
That set the chaotic scene on November 15,
when a supposedly ailing Arroyo arrived at Manila's international airport in a
wheelchair and neck brace only to be barred from departing the country by
immigration officials under DoJ orders. Arroyo's entourage, including her
husband, a top aide, security personnel and a nurse, were scheduled to fly to
Singapore and subsequently indicated they might travel further abroad to seek
medical attention in Spain.
The DoJ justified its move on the legal
argument it had not yet received the Supreme Court's temporary restraining
order when Arroyo arrived at the airport. The Supreme Court has since suggested
it could file contempt charges against DoJ Secretary Leila de Lima, while
pro-Arroyo attorneys are seeking de Lima's disbarment for apparently flouting
the Supreme Court's decision.
Legal
maneuvers
In the court of public opinion, however,
sentiment seems to be on Aquino's side. Opinion polls show that both Arroyo and
the Supreme Court are unpopular and suffer from credibility issues in the
public eye. "It is no less corrupt than the rest of the Philippine
judicial system," quipped Pacific Strategies and Assessments, a risk
analysis firm, in recent reference to the Supreme Court's apparent role in
protecting Arroyo from prosecution.
While the Supreme Court insists its decisions
are consistent with the letter of the law, its record when ruling on cases
involving the Arroyos has been overwhelmingly in the former first couple's
favor. Chief Justice Corona has voted 19 times in favor of the Arroyos and
never in dissent since taking over the Supreme Court's leadership. Two senators
and a number of prominent individuals have recently asked Corona to inhibit
himself from any future deliberations involving Arroyo to concerns of his
impartiality.
The Supreme Court is currently holding oral
arguments on petitions filed on the constitutionality of the DOJ-Commission on
Elections (Comelec) joint panel, which recommended Arroyo's prosecution for
alleged electoral fraud in 2007. Based on that recommendation, an arrest
warrant was issued by the Pasay Regional Trial Court (RTC) judge against
Arroyo, which puts to rest for now the question of whether she should be
allowed to travel abroad.
Arroyo has been charged along with former
Maguindanao province governor Andal Ampatuan Sr, a top suspect in the 2009
Maguindanao massacre that saw the killing of 57 people, including his clan's
political rivals, and election supervisor Lintang Bedol for alleged fraud
during the 2007 senatorial elections in parts of the southern island of
Mindanao. Arroyo and the Ampatuans were close political allies.
If the Supreme Court rules that the joint
panel's formation was illegal, then the arrest warrant and electoral sabotage
case against Arroyo will be legally dismissed. Lead prosecutor Maria Juana
Valesa has recommended that Arroyo be transferred from her current confinement
in a first class hospital, which news reports suggest costs 50,000 pesos per
day and is outfitted with a huge dining area and bathroom Jacuzzi, to a proper
detention center while she awaits arraignment.
After Arroyo's doctor recently admitted to the
Pasay Regional Trial Court that the former president is "medically
fit" to leave the hospital, her lawyers have scrambled for a legal defense
to justify her being held under house arrest rather than in prison. Arroyo is
still in hospital, supposedly suffering from a recently developed case of
colitis.
Her latest alleged malady comes after the
families of 32 slain journalists in the Maguindanao massacre filed a 15 million
peso suit against Arroyo for aiding the Ampatuan clan through an executive
order that legalized the use of private armies as "force multipliers"
in the war against insurgents in the area. Under the doctrine of command
responsibility, the claimants argue, Arroyo should also be held liable for the
massacre deaths because the Philippine police, which were under her supervision
at the time of the mass murder, are among the massacre's main suspects.
The Philippines is home to a storied culture
of impunity in murder cases where provincial politicians and officials are
suspects, but the Maguindanao massacre and Arroyo's apparent attempts to shield
the Ampatuans have touched a nerve among Manila's politically important middle
class. Political analysts believe that if Arroyo is convicted of one of the
many accusations she faces, follow-up corruption suits will be easier to prosecute.
And an Arroyo conviction would likely provide a bounce to Aquino's own sliding
reform credentials.
Joel D Adriano
Asia Times
Joel D Adriano is an independent consultant
and award-winning freelance journalist. He was a sub-editor for the business
section of The Manila Times and writes for ASEAN BizTimes, Safe Democracy and
People's Tonight.
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