The
people are once more regaled by another round of scandals in the trapo
regime. During the Jose Pidal expose, Cong. Iggy Arroyo faced the
Senate and often used the term "my right against self-incrimination"
to buttress his silence. Now it is the First Son who is implicated
in the ongoing "jueteng scandal", and he immediately denied
the accusations.
Congressman Mikey Arroyo may indeed be man enough and face the Senate
hearings in response to the challenge of Senator. Estrada. Even then
he may remain uncooperative in the hearings, and once again hide behind
the excuse "my right against self-incrimination." The phrase
has always been used as a convenient alibi to hide the truth. It may
be a valid legal argument for the First Son to stand on, but from
it he cannot exercise the moral high ground.
The truth of the statements of Boy Mayor maybe questioned and its
motives doubted. Nonetheless, it is worthy as a starting point for
a serious investigation and cannot be outrightly dismissed as done
by Mr. Bunye. One way to verify Boy Mayor's assertions is to open
the financial accounts, assets and resources of the personalities
implicated in the scandal. Boy Mayor's testimony cannot be easily
demolished by another round of denials and by associating it with
moves to oust the GMA regime.
It is true that former President Joseph Estrada was ousted because
of his association with jueteng lords. However, the masses do not
just seek GMA's ouster, they want the ouster of the whole system.
And it is not because the masses care much about jueteng payola but
because they no longer live decently because of anti-people policies
pursued by an elitist government.
The regime should rightly be scared of being ousted from power. But
its ouster will not come from scandals and scams around exposes like
jueteng, but from the people's anger at pro-rich policies dictated
by the IMF-WB-WTO.
---------------
Michelle is the spokesperson for Sanlakas.
