The hopelessness and distrust of the Filipinos in the partisanship of the Department of Justice and the Ombudsman , who are known as avid Malacanang loyalists and protectors, are shown in a recent letter to the editors of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, dated December 9, 2008, from a Fil-Am lawyer, Steve Vespera, Esq. It is quoted in full below.
Bastardized ‘proper forum’
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:57:00 12/09/2008
Whenever anomalies and scams are uncovered under the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration, the constant mantra heard from its hatchet men is: Present proof at the “proper forum”! And by that they invariably mean the Department of Justice under Secretary Raul Gonzalez whose loyalty to the Arroyo administration would put any bootlicker to shame; the Office of the Ombudsman under Merceditas Gutierrez whose obsequiousness to the Arroyo family defies the law and the rationale that brought that office into existence; the impeachment tribunal (Congress), the House of Representatives in particular, whose servility to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has been demonstrated time and again to be beyond any shadow of a doubt; or the courts where cases can conveniently be consigned to oblivion.
And the irony of it all is: People who brave the odds to expose government anomalies are the ones who end up being charged with all sorts of criminal offenses—real or imagined. Trust Gonzalez or Gutierrez to come up with the looniest ratiocination to exonerate the errand boys of the Arroyo administration and turn the tables on the accusers.
With the bastardization of practically all institutions of justice and punishment, why are the people, who are robbed blind and bled to death by this administration, so indifferent? It’s the same old joke during the Ferdinand Marcos regime: Are we a country of 90 million cowards dominated and intimidated by—in the words of Gov. Joey Salceda—one “lucky bitch”?
STEVE Y. VESPERA, Esq.
