By their senatorial ‘bets’ shall we know ’em

As expected, a storm of criticism has descended on the Sandiganbayan Special Division for allowing ex-President Joseph Estrada to get out of jail and seek surgery in the United States.

Was the Sandiganbayan "influenced" by Malacañang? Was a "deal" struck between Erap and the Palace? This will be argued noisily till kingdom come.

Whatever really occurred sub rosa, Realpolitik suggests it’s best to get Erap out of the country – for his sake, but, more importantly, for ours.

Why’s this? As long as the "deposed" king is in residence here, albeit behind barbed wire or bars, he can – if he’s doing so, or has a mind to – orchestrate plots, mutinies, coups, "mass actions" and other eruptions of destabilization. When one faces a possible death penalty for "plunder", if proven, or holds the conviction that he’ll be locked away for life, without hope of reprieve (even the timid "amnesty" balloon was swiftly shot down), the prisoner’s only way out is to strive with might and main to overthrow the existing Government. Give him another way out, even if viewed as merely temporary, and such frantic efforts to topple the Administration will subside, or at the least be postponed.

Let’s face it. Those who cried out that the plunderers of the evil Marcos dictatorship must be punished without mercy, and the unexplained or hidden wealth they accumulated by their pillage and bullying ways "returned" to the people, have grown silent – from either exhaustion, complaisance, ennui – or less-than-clandestine participation in the accumulated treasures of that orgy of martial law looting. The Task Forces designated by the renewed-democracy of the Cory Aquino Government soon deteriorated into Ask Forces themselves. Some heroes and heroines of the EDSA barricades transmogrified into the vampires and vultures of "post-Liberation".

There’s a sad saying that "in time every Revolution evaporates and leaves behind it only the slime of another bureaucracy." In our case, after the People Power triumph of EDSA UNO (yes, Virginia, we were there, through the watches of the night, at those barricades), some of those who took over didn’t even strive to dismantle the Marcos Bureaucracy – which had been building up over 20 years, mind you – but, instead, took control of that bureaucracy to loot some more themselves. (What better thieves and robbers are there than those with experience and track records?) Even some Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) bravos, dispatched to sequester and save banks, robbed them comfortably from their new positions of power.

As for the Marcos Gang? Who ever went to prison? Not even the former Superma’am, Imeldific, who was the hate-object of the Conjugal Dictatorship. Why, she goes, beautifully coiffed as always, to the best socials and her ternos are as magnificent as ever. Why, she even defied the Sandiganbayan "deadline" for her to come home from a trip to London, etc., but was never arrested for this violation.

Macoy’s son, Bong-Bong, alias Bonget, is merrily Governor of Ilocos Norte. Smart and pretty Imee Marcos is Ilocos Norte Representative and may be elected to the Senate. The Romualdezes, with the exception of one, are back in office in Leyte.

The wheels of justice bogged down in the case of all the so-called Marcos cronies, bar none.

What makes anyone think the Government will be more successful in cracking down on Estrada and his "friends"? Has a prima facie case already been established? Pragmatism – for the nonce – indicates that it’s timely for our Government and our coming "elections" (or selections, as the case may be) to get Mr. Estrada out of "range", so to speak. I’m not saying this is what moved the Sandiganbayan to give him leave to depart for medical treatment. At worst, the "coincidence" is serendipity. Let him go get fixed at the Stanford University hospital in Palo Alto, California by Dr. Christopher Mowe or whatever expert may be called in. This will give us time and breathing space to fix our democratic system, tackle the problems of the coming election (and, truly, there are problems, starting with the Comelec), and earn for us a period of brief respite.

Nobody’s declaring that, if he erred, the deposed President should be let off the hook. Justice can and will be done, if indeed he committed wrong. But right now, there are other, more urgent, more vital and more pressing priorities. It’s fun to get on our high horses and preen ourselves noble knights thrusting our lances because, like Sir Galahad, our "hearts are pure", into the perceived Dragon. Which Dragon is worse, Jose Velarde or Jose Pidal? (Are they both Blue Dragons from the Ateneo of Jose Rizal?)

Having gotten the self-righteous huffing and puffing off our chests, let’s lose no time in going on to more serious business.

As for the silly debate over whether the US Consulate will grant Estrada a US Visa, this matter was never in doubt. What the Americans have been asking our Government, sotto voce of course, is to promise when the time comes, the Government will let him back in. In short, the Yanks don’t want to be stuck with him forever – in asylum or in a "fugitive" mode. That’s all.

Sige na. Hasta la vista, Erap! Vaya con Dios y con Doctor. Don’t argue abut whether you’ll be forced to have four police escorts, or whether you can pare this "expense" down to two.

Grab your boarding card and . . . git, before the urong-sulong authorities change their minds. (If any).

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How can Presidential-candidate (ex-Senator) Raul Roco claim to be a frontrunner? Just take a look at his senatorial line-up. I’ve nothing against champion bowler Bong Coo, or Announcer Jay Sonza, or the other lesser-known in the list, but gee whiz, Raul, will an Aksyon Demokratikong-led Senate of such a complexion really give "HOPE" to this frazzled country? If a candidate has such a shallow bench, judging from the First Team he’s fielding, one can only shudder at how the Second Team and the Benchwarmers will look.

The senatorial "ticket" claiming to be the pangkat of FPJ, alias Ronnie Poe, looks even less appetizing. Those who believe that FPJ is a new, fresh face – a refreshing change from the TRAPO or traditional politician – will have to blink, and look again. Gosh. Johnny Ponce Enrile, Miriam Defensor Santiago, Ernie Maceda, Kit Tatad? Haven’t we seen those Old Faces before? Imee Marcos? That surname Marcos has a familiar ring, doesn’t it?

The FPJ New Deal, if this is truly his Senate "ticket", appears too much like an Old Deal – Sus, even an Ordeal. Panday may begin to look like Panday Pira. Woe is Ronnie, if he accepts this slate being self-proclaimed his Knights-errant and his political vanguard.

FPJ had earlier intimated to close friends that the reason he didn’t show up for his supposed "proclamation" is that he didn’t want to identify himself with many of those who were gathered there, all of them eager to raise his hand, and publicize themselves, into the bargain, as his champions.

"Won’t you need those TRAPOS and their political networks in your campaign?" Somebody pointedly asked him. At which he smiled that screen-smile of his, immortalized in so many heroic action movies, and replied: "No, but I won’t explain yet. We’re working on that."

Work fast, if you will then, Panday-Baby. The deadline for registration of candidates is January 5. That’s just around the corner.

In the meantime, what about the "proclaimed" senatorial slate, endorsed, we believe, by Senator Edong Angara, some of them, he told me a few days ago, "in a spirit of reconciliation". Will FPJ finally be forced to accept those wannabes? There’s been not a contrary peep from him in his role of The Sphinx.

The trouble with the political picture is that anybody can issue a press release nominating himself or herself. In FPJ’s case, everybody seems to be speaking for him, since he’s not been speaking for himself. Has he finished writing his own "platform" as he pledged?

We await The Revelation, as well, but this is a more forlorn hope, The Repudiation.

In any event, many people wish we could abolish the Senate. The Senate has proven a luxury we can no longer afford, a barrier to progress, a perpetual-motion investigating body (when the Senators run out of scandals to investigate, they investigate each other), and a self-winding personal propaganda machine.

The House of Representatives, while a number of its members are clowns, special pleaders, or dynasts, at least passes some sensible bills – but they disappear in the Senate. Alas, though, it’s too late – I think – to rush through the "parliamentary system". I won’t concede it will be better (that’s still a bit in doubt), but it will effectively do away with the Senate, not to mention the absolutely worthless expense of giving each Senator P300 MILLION apiece in taxpayers’ money per year in "pork barrel".

Where does this "pork barrel" go? Before every December, most Senators claim they already "dispersed" their annual P300 million! On their favorite charities . . . in the case of some – their own?

* * *

The terrible earthquake in Iran’s southeastern city of Bam, famous for its storied Fort which once lay as a guard post on the fabulous Silk Road, may have killed as many as 40,000.

No one’s certain, since most of the dead are buried under the ruins, and the debris of flimsy buildings and structures. This just shows that there’s no fury like that of Nature, even as bomb-crazy fanatics contrive to bomb the hell out of other places, whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Russia, Georgia, Bali (Indonesia), or the Philippines.

Bam, with its structures erected mostly of mud brick and other flimsy materials, had no chance when the killer quake hit in the early dawn as the majority of the 200,000 residents of the area were sleeping. The 2,000-year old citadel – a site of popular tourist pilgrimage – collapsed entirely.

Our prayers and our hearts go out to the dying, the dead, and their bereaved and devastated families, and the scores of thousands out there, shivering roofless in the winter chill. I wish we could mobilize and dispatch some credible aid.

Iran is prone to earthquakes, much more so than we are, situated as we are within the Ring of Fire and an area of sometimes shifting tectonic plates.

Since 1991, there have been 1,000 quakes in that oil-rich Muslim country, but the 1990 earthquake and landslide which hit Zanjan and Gilan provinces in Northwest Iran (June 21, 1990) was the most destructive and horrible of all.

The 7.3 to 7.7 magnitude earthquake in the Caspian Sea region claimed 50,000 lives. The quake struck at 12:30 a.m. local time and registered a series of aftershocks as large as 6.5 magnitude for four days running. The cities of Rudbar, Manjil, and Lushan, as well as 700 villages, were wiped out completely, while another 300 villages were badly damaged. There were 60,000 injured, and half a million people were rendered homeless. Rescue teams arrived from France, the UK, Spain, Japan, while US President George Herbert Walker Bush (Dubya’s dad), who had recently cut off all diplomatic ties with Tehran, along with all trade ties, immediately offered any help America could provide. Bush also dispatched a message of condolence to then President of Iraq, Hashemi Rafsanjani.

What about Dubya Bush? Even if the Americans are, once again, at odds with Iran over those never-ending nuke suspicions they’ll probably help. They may be gross, over-reaching, violent, irritating and even petty in other things, but it’s their way – the American way. This is their one, great, admirable trait we still have, in our own propensity to selfishness, to learn.