Fables and foibles

Question: what is the latest, greatest trending British band coming to Manila? Answer: Cold Play! Question: what is the epidemic that seems to have hit the highest echelons of government in Manila? Answer: Cold Feet. This is also known as suddenly losing the nerve to do what you planned to do.

Exhibit A: PNP Director General Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa. We just commemorated the anniversary of Supremo Andres Bonifacio whose courage, conviction, decisiveness and daring are qualities for emulation in war and in governance. In Gen. Bato, we imagined that we lucked out. His was the rare convergence of these Bonifacian attributes in a unique and affable packaging.

Not afraid of death, not afraid of drugs, not afraid of the Ombudsman! His battle cries at the start of the President’s centerpiece program still ring in every ear: spare no one, no special treatment, no sacred cows. Here we thought, finally, was the Dutertean Hercules to cleanse the Augean drug stables. Yun pala, takot daw kay Bong Go.

Who is afraid of Christopher Go? Reminiscent of a Richelieu or Rasputin, Secretary Christopher “Bong” Go is Sen. Leila de Lima’s prime suspect as the shadowy figure who interceded on behalf of Supt. Marvin Marcos.  Sec. Go flatly denies this.

That he or “a higher official” may have actually interfered in an official investigation is something we need ultimately pursue for compelling political and criminal considerations. The larger and even more pressing issue, for now, is the fact that someone was spared, given special treatment and elevated as a sacred cow.

There is a general sense that the administration is dead serious in producing results on the President’s central campaign pledge. This is the kindling for our trust – in him and in his champions to do the right thing. And it is his perceived impartiality and eyes on the target that has somewhat inured the people to the unpalatable side effects of his drug war. After all, we are the beneficiaries. The theory is that a hungry stomach is less likely to question how the food gets to the table.

But how can we continue to trust when the beneficiaries turn out to be not us, after all, but the suspected culprits themselves? Revelations like this are hairline fissures that fast degenerate into cavernous cracks on the surface of a war of this magnitude.

Trust me!? The other problematic side to this episode is that Gen. Bato asked us to “take his word for it”. He did not believe that Supt. Marcos would have caused undue influence on the investigation. This a monumental miscalculation as the suspect Supt. actually led the CIDG-8 team into the Leyte jail that fateful morning. It was also an unwitting body blow to an already overly pummeled rule of law.

John Adams’ powerful formulation that “ours is a government of laws, not of men” is a foundation on which the rule of law rests. Written law trumps unwritten will.  You simply cannot ask the country to trust you when written laws have clearly been violated, however genial you may appear. Such cavalier statements from men in high office wreak more havoc on the rule of law than however many extra judicial killings can inflict.

Refreshment for the Jaded.  Resignations on matters of principle – think Hyatt 10, PICC walk out – are acts of high political theater. Who can remain nonplussed at the spectacle of an official voluntarily surrendering office while everyone else is stampeding to gain office? It is as rare as it is exceptional. On display, it always works to restore flagging confidence in the virtues of public office and those who hold it.

Hence the esteem in which we hold Ma. Serena Diokno for her act of concession. Maris Diokno is a hero of a different stripe – a woman of moral courage. It takes no small measure of strength to turn your back on the opportunity to serve the country and no smaller measure of audacity to so publicly disclose your disagreement and disapprobation with a decision of your President. Only the most firmly held beliefs can underlie such extreme actions and sustain the resolve needed to see it through.

But if the administration’s revisionist understanding of our Martial Law past were all that annoyed her, then why the belated statement on day 2 on “killings, stealing and disrespecting women”?

The conversation must clarify whether her moral compass led her to the decision based on this egregious Marcos issue alone or if this were just one of the many reasons. The later statements only hint at what she may feel regarding the killings, stealing and disrespecting of women. Yet, it remains a clear swipe against other decisions of the sitting administration. Is she mad at Marcos or mad at Duterte?

Who’s next? And on the subject of cold feet, is this how we are to rationalize the actions and inactions of certain members of the President’s Cabinet?

A curious mainstay at anti Marcos rallies is Vice President Leonor Robredo. In a situation pregnant with the potential to be perceived as either: (a) pragmatic political piggy backing on the issue against her election protester or (b) the handiwork of a political group of which she is the acknowledged highest incumbent, she continues to defy a clear policy decision of her President.

This is not the single issue on which they differ. She had publicly chastised the President’s administration in a tone one decibel short of audible on the spate of extra judicial killings. Her office budget has been slashed, indicating the respect in which she is held. Yet she stays on as a member of his Cabinet.

She has gone on record as being uncomfortable with the President’s tasteless remarks and inappropriate advances. Calling him out shone a spotlight on the impropriety. But staying on in her position switches off the same light.

It is clear that the Vice President has something to say. She has every right and, to many, the duty to speak up specially if critical. Wouldn’t she be more effective and credible if not a member of the Cabinet?