A covert order in the "Alabang Boys" case

Shortly after the alleged bribery of the Department of Justice officials that was perceived to have led to the reported dismissal of the high profile case of the so-called "Alabang Boys", Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, acted swiftly. President Arroyo had to be quick on the draw because the case involved the very government agency that, as its name carries, has a role in upholding truth and justice. The president directed the concerned officers of the prosecuting arm of the government to take a leave while an investigation to find out if bribery attended the case, was being conducted. She meant for them to "back off", to use an infamous quote attributed to the first gentleman in an earlier imbroglio.

In the mind of the public, the official leave of absence of the prosecutors thru whose tables passed the drug-case folder of the "Alabang Boys" is needed. They have to be distanced from their offices as an administrative measure. The consistent legalistic jargon applicable to the situation is to prevent them from influencing the result of the investigation or to keep their hands away from whatever may possibly come out as incriminating corpus of evidence. Otherwise, the search for truth would just be thwarted and rendered nugatory.

That corruption has become a horrible way of life is, as indicated by many an irrefutable poll survey, a nagging public perception. It has not come because there are few reports of such evil deeds taking place now and then. Rather, it has evolved from the many malodorous practices that are being chronicled with incredible regularity. Sadly, the present administration has, on account of the confluence of questionable transactions that have remained unresolved, attained the unenviable reputation of reaching the apex of graft. Such perception feeds on the premise that a great portion of these reported misdeeds can be traced to the corridors of the presidency. It is thus not difficult for me to share in the belief that Pres. Arroyo has lost her moral ascendancy.

Having said that, let me claim that the presidential directive for the prosecutors to "back off" was, to me, more of a show, a make believe of some kind, than an honest effort to cleanse this government. The skeptic in me told me that. Why did I think that the immediate effect of the presidential fiat was to poison the mind of the public enough to condemn the prosecutors, yet spare the head of the government? And then, set us up to an eventual finding of their innocence? At the same time, why did I also think that the Malacañang directive, in effect, played 'footsie' with some segments of the idealist Magdalo group who are stationed with the government's drug enforcement agency? And then later on set us up to accepting a retired general with a scary record of brutal human rights violation at its command?

This late Malacañang act is Machiavellian. There is an effort to project that it does not tolerate bribery to explain why those prosecutors alluded to as having received bribe money, have to yield to a high-powered investigation. That is the announced objective. But, the virtual is, as we all know, not real.

There is a more devious, though covert, intention in this order. It actually seeks to cleanse the image of the president. This directive aims to parry the creeping belief that the reported corruption in such odious deals as the ZTE NBN and the Fertilizer scam were either inspired or instigated by the office of the president. By pitting the integrity of prosecutors against that of the operatives of the anti drug agency, it seeks to highlight the existence of corruption in either of these agencies and away from that of the president.

It is not late though. The president has still enough time to recover lost credibility ground. No need of resorting to the kind of tricks Nicolo Machiavelli suggested to the Prince. President Arroyo should go back to the issues that eroded our trust in her and allow them to reach a definite closure. If her hands were found clean of any misdeed, the minor functionaries would have no hideous example to follow and better still, she would have restored the pride and dignity that crown the presidency.