Erap on prisoner Gloria
The nose for news is a flair that many media workers try to cultivate so it was not surprising that on the day former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and husband Mike tried to catch a flight to Singapore despite strict orders from the Department of Justice not to allow them to leave the country, reporters were already taking their position in Singapore’s international airport intently waiting for the former first couple to arrive.
As we know, despite the Supreme Court’s temporary restraining order that effectively lifted the travel ban imposed by the Department of Justice on the Arroyos, they were unable to get past Bureau of Immigration authorities at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1. Due to Secretary Leila de Lima’s strict orders to stop the Arroyos in their tracks, the media frenzy that was expected in Singapore international airport didn’t materialize.
But guess who arrived in the Lion City. The other former president, Joseph “Erap” Estrada, who came in with businessman and buddy William Gatchalian.
Fortunately for media workers, there was something substantive to report from the neighboring city. They cornered the former president while he made his way out of the airport.
The former actor who is known to be natural and easy with off-the-cuff remarks immediately went on to recall his bitter experience after he was ousted from Malacañang in 2001. Although Erap did not mention the back story of his fall from power, he was candid enough to talk about his arrest and detention and how he faced the music. He commended the Aquino administration for stopping the Arroyos from leaving although he suggested that P-Noy was rather soft on Gloria.
Later during the media chat, he remarked that while GMA can’t travel to Singapore, there he was, free to go anywhere. He seemed to suggest that at one time, he was at the receiving end of Gloria’s power when he was charged, detained for six years and convicted of plunder and later pardoned for the capital offense.
In the end, he challenged Arroyo to face the charges, the same way he did when the inevitable had to happen.
A media colleague who saw Estrada’s video clip quipped that Erap was actually trying to tell GMA, “Wa na kay mahimo, paposas na lang.” “You can’t do anything anymore but get handcuffed” is the literal translation, but I guess Erap meant it in another dimension. Experiencing the same bad things that one person caused another to experience does not quite take in what happened during Edsa Dos, but some people look at current events this way.
* * *
The so-called “anti-epal” bill authored by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago has divided the Senate after Sen. Antonio Trillanes proposed to remove the penal provisions in Senate Bill 1967. The measure provides for six months to one year imprisonment for a public official who puts his name on a signage of public works project. Trillanes is worried the measure might be used by unscrupulous persons to do a hatchet job against political rivals. He has a point, but minus a penal provision, the anti-epal bill becomes a paper tiger.
The anti-epal bill should bring about a change in behavior, Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III correctly pointed out. If there’s nothing in the law that would compel politicians and public officials to stop promoting themselves in public signages, deliberation on the bill is sheer waste of time.
S.B. 1967 is an “Act Prohibiting Public Officers from Claiming Credit through Signage Announcing a Public Works Project.” Senator Santiago hopes the bill will undo the epal practice, one that has contributed to “a culture of political patronage and corruption, aside from it being pointless and highly unethical.”
I thought I’ve seen every signage that promotes public officials until I went to Davao City recently. I was en route to Surallah, South Cotabato, for a professional engagement and my hosts instructed me to take the Yellow Bus from Gensan to Koronadal where I was going to be fetched. Unfortunately, I missed my plane so I had to take a flight to Davao City, which meant taking a long land trip through the towns of Davao del Sur before reaching my destination.
Passing by the capital city of Digos, I was struck by a very high steel archway, about 15 to 20 feet high. The structure must have been meant to welcome visitors to the capital city of Davao del Sur where Gov. Douglas Cagas holds sway. The steel archway carried the message “The best is yet to come” and the name of Governor Cagas.
Did Sen. Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos think of this structure when he suggested that the anti-epal bill should provide for protection of local policemen who would be tapped to enforce the measure? Senator Marcos has a point but in the case of the Digos steel archway, if it is on the radar of the anti-epal bill, tearing it down is not a simple task for the police or even the military.
