The family of the late Jeffrey Laude may be forgiven for feeling angry and bitter. Any death, especially if untimely, must be very difficult to deal with, more so if the circumstances point to the likelihood of murder. Thus far, indications suggest he was last in the company of an American serviceman who, under the Visiting Forces Agreement between the United States and the Philippines, gets to enjoy certain considerations normally not available to suspects in ordinary criminal cases.
But then, one may also wonder how long anyone can be forgiving in face of the many impossible demands the family is making, demands that they probably do not even fully understand but are forced to make on the suggestion of, and perhaps pressure from, others. Let us not kid ourselves. It is very evident there are people and groups that, while not really parties to the case, have latched on to it because of what the case means and can do for their causes and interests.
One demand that I find particularly testy and unreasonable is the one asking Noynoy Aquino to do something about the case. The last report I read was that the family was angry at the president for not stepping into the case. Anybody who has followed this column knows I do not like Noynoy. But I do not think it is reasonable for the family, or anyone for that matter, to demand that the president of the republic step into the case, whatever that means.
The president cannot, for obvious reasons, intervene in a criminal case, or any case for that matter. Litigation is a matter exclusive to the courts and I find it surprising that the family, surrounded as it is by some of the best legal minds that have volunteered their services, would even think it possible to involve the president unless there is an evil design to profit from it, regardless of whether the president takes the bait or not.
The sad thing about is that this evil design seeks to profit from a situation at the expense of both the president and the family itself – the president for political and social expediency, the family for their naiveté. However, the president reacts to the gauntlet thrown will serve some political and social purpose for those who threw it. The family, on the other hand, is being made to think the whole world is behind it.
Never mind the president because, as a political animal, he will always find some means to survive. But the Laude family is being given false hopes sprung from false notions that everybody else, but those who surround it now know will never flourish. Even if Noynoy wanted to, it would be stupid for any president to abrogate a bilateral agreement, if that is what is meant by stepping in, on the basis of one criminal case.
And the bilateral agreement in question is not just any agreement with any other country. It is a bilateral agreement with the United States, the only country in the world upon which the Philippines has pinned so much, especially when it comes to its territorial dispute with China. The VFA is intricately and inextricably tied to the defense expectations of the Philippines.
Now, I have written many times here before that I have very real and serious doubts about the seriousness of America's intention to come to the defense of the Philippines if push comes to shove in its dispute with China. And I am not alone in my doubts. In fact, others are more categorical and have opined unequivocally that America will not come to our aid even in case of an attack.
That, of course, remains to be seen, hence my doubts. And I would go so far as to say that even Philippine officials themselves, Noynoy among them, cannot but also make room for their own similar doubts. But doubts notwithstanding, the fact remains that America is the only country in the world that can possibly come to our aid. And for a poor and almost defenseless country like ours, even that remote possibility is enough. For what else is there.
And that is precisely why, even on the mere strength of a remote possibility, the Philippines is willing to take its chances and will not do anything to let that possibility, however remote, slip away. The lawyers surrounding the Laude family know this very well. So, if they are not stopping the family from making such an impossible demand of the president, then they must be up to something far larger than the case itself and are just using the family for their own purposes.
To me, that is a double tragedy for the Laude family, to lose one of their beloved, and then to be used for purposes that have nothing to do with their loss. And I think the Philippine media have wittingly allowed themselves to be used for the same purpose. And that is because they have their own agenda as well. They want to squeeze every ounce of public interest out of the case even if they know far larger interests have overtaken the killing itself.
It is very seldom that I do this, but I thank and commend Noynoy for standing his ground and not allow himself to be dragged into this mess. This mess is not about the VFA even if there are those who insist it is. If the VFA is as obnoxious as it is being purported to be, why have not its critics not consistently fought it from the first day of its inception? Why did they have to wait for an unfortunate incident to happen so they can hijack it to suit their purposes?
Our legislators are very quick to launch hearing and investigations, often at the slightest instigation. Even a mere shift in the wind can be cause for a probe by Congress. Yet nobody from among our honorable ladies and gentlemen in both houses of Congress has sought a review of the VFA after all this time. But now that Laude has died and an American soldier is involved, it is as if the very sovereignty of the state is at stake that it must now require presidential intervention. WTF!