By:BONG O. WENCESLAO
CANDID THOUGHTS
SEN. Grace Poe seems to be taking us for a ride. She has continued to make the people believe that she is still mulling about running for a higher post in next year’s elections. Yet, she has already drafted a platform of government and this: she has been going the rounds of the country shaking hands like declared presidential candidates Mar Roxas of the Liberal Party (LP) and Jejomar Binay of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA).
That is why the more I look at her and her body language the more I realize that my initial perception of her was wrong. In just more than two years in an elective position (senator), Poe is fast becoming a traditional politician (trapo). She is manipulating our perception of her.
Her being trapo showed in her stance on the recent protest action of the Iglesia ni Cristo against Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and the Department of Justice (DOJ), which is hearing the criminal charges that a former Iglesia ni Cristo minister is filing against the religious group’s leadership, called the Sanggunian. Iglesia members are in Edsa in a “show of force.”
Instead of helping to ease tensions by clarifying how the judicial process works, Poe (and Binay and even her supposed running mate Sen. Chiz Escudero) didn’t. Here’s Poe:
“Magtataka ka rin, bakit ang tutok doon, samantalang halimbawa ang ibang mga kaso ng gobyerno wala naman silang mga witnesses pa na naka-hold (You would wonder why the focus is there while for other government cases they have not held witnesses yet).”
There is nothing statesmanlike in that statement. Rather, it is intended to woo the Iglesia ni Cristo, which is known to vote as a block, into supporting her candidacy. That line is not only ill-informed, it is misleading and illogical.
Poe (and Binay and Escudero) wants the DOJ to finish first its probe into the Mamasapano incident wherein 44 elements of the Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police (PNP) were killed. That is not how the justice system works. Whatever the case is filed, you deal with them. If the DOJ, or any of our law enforcement agencies or even the courts, won’t do that, what will happen to the non-sensational cases that also need attention?
Besides, the Iglesia protest is jumping the gun on de Lima and the DOJ. Expelled Iglesia minister Isaias Samson filed charges for the crime of serious illegal detention against members of the Sanggunian whom he alleged to have detained him when the rift within the religious group erupted. Here’s how his lawyers, Trixie Cruz-Angeles and Ahmed Paglinawan, described the Iglesia’s protest action and the status of the case in a statement:
“Instead of answering the allegations at preliminary investigation, they immediately call out the Department of Justice officials as being biased, based solely on their perception that the mere docketing of the case at the main office is already proof of said ‘selective’ justice…
“The investigation has not begun, no evidence has been adduced and neither side has been heard. The complaint was filed on Tuesday 25 August, and no notices for hearings have been sent out. What are they complaining about?”
With that clarification, what does it make of the statements of Poe, Binay and Escudero? And since I have friends in the Iglesia ni Cristo, I also hope its leadership would listen to the voice of reason. Or of this expression of the democratic principles that guide our society’s existence: We are a government of laws and not of men.
not mine.credit and source: SUNSTAR CEBU
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