LAW-KOHAN

There's The Rub
'LAW-KOHAN'
'By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer
Last updated 02:06am (Mla time) 06/26/2007

Juan Ponce Enrile wears the sternly benign face of law. The Senate can sign all the petitions it wants, he says, but in the end Antonio Trillanes’ fate rests on the courts, not on them. “We are dealing with the separation of powers. When the court says no, there is nothing you can do about it.”

His twin sister, Miriam Santiago, goes further. Trillanes’ case, she says, is just like Romeo Jalosjos’. Jalosjos ran for public office and won but remained in jail. His victory was soon voided. “Just because a prisoner has won as senator does not mean that she should be free to attend Senate sessions. That would be a violation of the equal protection clause of the Constitution.”

That is all very well, except for several things.

First is that Ponce Enrile should be saying those things. Lest we forget, he was an architect of martial law and was Ferdinand Marcos’ chief legal expert in that wise, or witlessness. Marcos, being a lawyer himself, was near-obsessed with finding a legal justification for his illegal usurpation of power and its murderous consequences, and employed a battery of lawyers, Enrile among them, for the purpose. He built an order dedicated to fomenting lawlessness by means of law. You see Enrile suddenly discovering the majesty of law, you can be sure it will be a travesty of justice.

Second is that it is not true at all that the courts of this country, probably with the sole, though luminous, exception of the Supreme Court, and only as shown by its recent pronouncements, are independent or constitute a bastion of the separation of powers. The courts insist on keeping Trillanes in the stockade, it will not be a sign of their dogged grit, it will be a sign of their slinking cowardice. It will not be a sign that they will not cave in to pressure, it will be a sign they have long given in to pleasure.

The one thing Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s courts understand is not the force of law but the law of force. Look at those courts’ determined efforts -- with Ronaldo Puno flailing at them with a whip like a coachman does his horses -- to oust a duly elected mayor in the form of Jojo Binay on grounds of corruption. Or look at those courts’ determined efforts to jail Satur Ocampo, or send him to Leyte province, whichever comes first or produces the worse result, on grounds of having morally blessed, if not actually participated in, the massacre of comrades there.

For some reason, neither the courts nor Congress have demanded the ouster or jailing of an unelected president who has turned the country into the most corrupt in Asia. For those two crimes, the courts and Congress have ruled to punish her by making her the longest-serving post-Edsa People Power president. For some reason as well, neither the courts nor Congress have demanded the damnation or casting to hell of Norberto Gonzales and Jovito Palparan and their boss who, even as they were accusing Ocampo of a specious crime, were decimating this country’s tribe of journalists and political activists. Forget morally blessed, their hand in it is direct and patent.

Respect the judgment of the Gloria courts in the case of Trillanes? Only in the same way we should have respected the judgment of the Macoy courts in the case of Ninoy. What’s that grand phrase Miriam used, “equal protection clause of the Constitution”? Well, to paraphrase Imelda, some are more equal than others.

Third is that Trillanes’ case is not like Jalosjos’. Jalosjos’ sin is criminal, Trillanes’ is political. Jalosjos was accused and convicted of rape, and of a minor at that. However you slice it, however the public itself rules about Jalosjos’ qualifications to serve as public official, you cannot remove that blot on his person. By any moral standard, he remains despicable and deserves to rot in jail.

Trillanes was accused and convicted of mounting a coup against Arroyo. By all moral standards, other than the ones people like Enrile and Miriam discover when convenient, that is not a crime, that is a service to the nation. That does not deserve jail, that deserves a medal. That is not beyond the pale of the people, the ultimate arbiter of law and justice in a democracy, to set aright.

If trying to overthrow a government automatically deserves jail, then neither Enrile nor Miriam should be enjoying the fruits of freedom and afflicting us with their notions of law. Enrile was one of those who rebelled against Marcos, though unlike Trillanes who openly defied authority, he simply holed up in Camp Aguinaldo after being discovered to be plotting against his former patron. And Miriam was one of those who openly called for the mob during the so-called Edsa III to “sugod, sugod” ["attack, attack"] Malacañang after her former patron, ravisher of the nation but lavisher of largesse to friends, was ousted by an act of people power. In fact, she openly defied the efforts to arrest her, putting a gun on a table in front of the cameras and daring the law enforcers -- a monumental misnomer, “law” and “enforcer” -- to haul her ass away.

“Equal protection of the Constitution”? Well, if only by the law that heaven is kind to fools and drunks, Miriam should remain free to torment this country. Some people are more brain-damaged than others. Some nations are, too.
But in the end, I don’t mind if they keep Trillanes in jail. Because if the open disgust of the Armed Forces rank-and-file at their superiors, as shown by their defiance of orders to not make Trillanes win, and the open support of the people for Malacañang’s scourge, as shown by their shoving a well-known coup plotter into the Senate, are anything to go by, Enrile, Miriam and their boss may yet know law in all its thunderous righteousness before very long.

Keep him in jail, and this country may yet know freedom.