Vanishing breed 

The death of former Senator and Presidential contender Raul S. Roco has undoubtedly decimated the ranks of the few remaining good men sustaining the country’s flickering hope for a brighter political future. Somehow he provided the kind of reassurance and inspiration that the bygone era when our land was blessed with great statesmen and true patriots in the persons of Recto, Laurel, Tañada, Diokno, Aquino, Rodrigo, Pelaez, Padilla and others, will be continued up to the present and all the way into the future. He was one of a handful of contemporary politicians carrying the bright torch passed on by the brilliant and great leaders of the past. Now that he is gone, the torchlight has greatly dimmed.

Roco will be greatly missed not only by his family but by the entire nation especially during these darkest hours in its history. I am sure he would have wanted a fair, just and reasonable denouement to the crisis gripping our country today. I heard that up to his last moments he was concerned with the deteriorating development in our country’s situation. That was how much he loved his country.

The breed of politicians he represents is fast vanishing indeed. For if they are still around in considerable numbers we wont be seeing all these moves and counter-moves from both sides of the political fence that only bring us closer to the brink of a violent strife. What is happening now has deteriorated into a divisive struggle between the power grabbers and the power huggers that renders the state of affairs even murkier and the quest for the truth to end the present crisis, harder and harder. Instead of a joint and mutual attempt to get to the bottom of the alleged election rigging and illegal gambling payola, our politicians have resorted to "creeping" (as in gapangan) strategies that somehow institutionalize and glamorize "flip-flopping" witnesses and take advantage of "invisible" or missing ones. The air is rife with an eerie feeling that there is now an ongoing behind the scenes pitch battle to corrupt witnesses who have come out and to hide the person or suppress the testimony of would be witnesses.

It is definitely not in the best interest of truth to have a somersaulting or a missing or a silent and inaccessible witness at this stage. Persons who reneged on their words are downright unreliable. Relying on them or using them will not advance the cause of a party to a controversy. On the contrary, it even creates the impression that said party’s intention is to further muddle the issues. The sudden disappearance of a person with a potentially damaging story to tell indicates that he has been handsomely rewarded to remain out of sight. His flight can not even be an evidence of guilt as there are yet no charges against him. The prolonged silence of a witness on the other hand cannot help but create the perception that a "deal" has not yet been reached. These are the kind of witnesses emerging from the "creeping" strategies apparently being used now in the current power struggle. They are definitely not working to the advantage of the present dispensation. It is not consistent with the posture of somebody with nothing to hide.

The death of a contemporary but exemplary politician in the person of Raul S. Roco should therefore serve as a timely reminder to our current crop of politicians engaged in the ongoing struggle. Let his political career serve as an example to the rest of his contemporaries that what the world thinks of them is not as important as their reputation before God their creator. So, as they try to solve this crisis, they should always bear in mind the truism that guided the late Senator Roco as he pursued his political career: "the glory of this world passes" (sic transit gloria mundi).

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