Indictments, maybe

If there’s little immediate relief in sight for surging fuel prices, the nation at least is seeing some movement in the stalled anti-corruption crackdown.

These two issues are interconnected.

The non-crisis in the energy sector, which economists warn could lead to stagflation, makes it more urgent to clean up government and ensure the judicious utilization of public funds, free from thievery by those in high office.

We will need honest and competent government, with capable and decisive leadership, to survive this economic catastrophe caused by megalomaniac war freaks and global blackmailers.

By the time the law reducing or suspending fuel excise taxes takes effect, the amount would be too little to be felt – and this is presuming that President Marcos would be able to persuade oil companies and gas stations to reflect the cuts quickly in pump pricing.

A suspension of the 12-percent expanded value-added tax (EVAT) on fuel would have greater impact, if BBM orders it ASAP, invoking constitutional provisions granting the president special powers in a period of national emergency.

Such a move could face a legal challenge. But if BBM damns the torpedoes and acts quickly enough and the millions of suffering people feel the positive impact, whoever files the legal challenge will be the villain (along with the EVAT defenders in his team) while BBM will get the credit. I hesitate to write that he will emerge as the hero because as I’ve written, he is already increasingly being seen as too late the hero in this non-crisis.

But there’s also the admonition that it’s better late than never. So suspend the fuel EVAT already, Mr. President. Pinoys may have a short memory, but like the horrors unleashed by COVID or the tragedy from Super Typhoon Yolanda, this type of suffering won’t be easily forgotten.

The impact of the national energy emergency will be felt all the way to the next general elections, which are just two years away. BBM’s actions in this non-crisis will define his fate in 2028. His endorsement could become a kiss of death, like that of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as her survey ratings plunged below zero in the final years of her presidency.

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If BBM thinks there are too many moving parts beyond his control in the energy emergency, at least his other dud, the mahiya naman kayo shame campaign directed at the corrupt, appears to be stirring back to life.

“Appears,” because we all know that there’s a yawning gap in this country between a criminal indictment and conviction with finality, and between final conviction and punishment. Especially if the defendants can afford the best justice that money can buy.

Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla largely kept a low profile since Christmas came and went with no big fish having an unhappy holiday.

But now he has revived public expectations of accountability as he announced that plunder cases are expected to be filed next month against the former heads of the two chambers of Congress, ex-speaker Martin Romualdez and ex-Senate chief Francis Escudero.

The camp of Romualdez has consistently maintained his innocence. BBM has yet to comment on the accusations against his (ex?) favorite cousin.

BBM is also suspected of pussyfooting on the effort to bring back resigned Ako Bicol party-list congressman Elizaldy Co. Having chaired the committee on appropriations when Romualdez was speaker, Co is believed to know where all the skeletons are buried in the crafting of the most corrupt budgets of 2024 and 2025.

How hard is it to bring Co back? Can’t the government invoke the legally binding United Nations Convention Against Corruption to get Portugal to send him back to the Philippines? Portugal is a party to this UN convention.

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Remulla, in a press conference on Monday, said there seemed to have been a “conspiracy” to commit plunder. He indicated that the cases are related to flood control projects and national budget anomalies that the Office of the Ombudsman has examined, for 2024 and 2025 and possibly also covering the 18th Congress when Rodrigo Duterte was president.

This being Boying Remulla, I’m expecting that the cases to be filed meet his requirement of evidence solid enough to provide “reasonable certainty of conviction” instead of mere “probable cause.”

Remulla has said in interviews that there will be no sacred cows under his watch as ombudsman, implying that not even presidential relatives and crooks enjoying the strong support of influence-peddling interest groups will be spared.

On the other hand, he has also told us in interviews that plunder is a difficult offense to prove in court beyond reasonable doubt. It’s easier, he said, to pursue a case for malversation of public funds through falsification of public documents. Like plunder, malversation is non-bailable and carries the maximum penalty of life in prison.

That he is pursuing plunder charges has fueled speculation that instead of building cases with a reasonable certainty of conviction, his office could be providing reasonable certainty of dismissal by the courts.

Still, possibly because we have just celebrated Easter Sunday, we dare to hope that Remulla is on legacy mode, with his heart in the right place, and he would truly catch the big fish. And that the courts will agree with the indictments, and send plunderers to the national penitentiary.

In this period of non-crisis, we’re grasping at any straw of good news tossed our way.