Who’s not guilty?

HE SAYS
Who’s not guilty?
By Aldrin Cardon

Tell me please!

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the alleged crook and cheat, claims she is not.

Chief Justice Renato Corona, alleged chief protector of the alleged crook and cheat, claims he is not.

Noynoy Aquino, who claims to be treading the straight path culled from an advertising man’s mind, claims he is as clean as the path he claims to be treading. Is he?

The prosecutors of Corona project themselves to be as clean astheir boss. Most of the senator-judges also have tainted pasts.

Locked in intertwining legal and political battles, the main players in Philippine politics have us, the people, in their radars. They have to convince us, and lure us to join and follow them, because they need us if they are to continue their hold on power.

Gloria was said to just be biding her time when she pled not guilty to electoral sabotage, one of the many charges she must answer for.

Five years left in Noynoy’s term are not much to wait, the people have waited longer for Gloria to go.

She has not gone completely.

In fact, she gets protection from the same justice system she had trampled on when she was president for nine years. She is under so-called hospital arrest, enjoys the almost the same privileges asa free man and has hopes she can weather all the political and legal trials she is currently facing so she can enjoy her aging numerous million times more than we’ll do in our retirement.

She entertains hopes because she can. She hopes because there are reasons that make her believe there’s a clear horizon waiting for her future. She hopes because she knows Noynoy cannot stand up to his claims of cleansing government of cheats and crooks. Because somewhere, somehow all the systems in place wouldeventually gobble him up.

The weakness was glaring last weekend when Noynoy, for the nth time, used Corona’s impeachment as a springboard to his endless rhetoric about clean governance. Noynoy compared the fight that led to Edsa with that of the Corona trial, for which he earned jibes from no less than one of the main players who staked their lives in turning against Marcos, and in the process, stealing the revolution from the masses who took to the hills and launched a protracted war against the late dictator.

In one fell swoop, the revolution was back in the hands of one part of the ruling class. But that is another discourse that is better left in another piece.

Meantime, let us give it to Fidel Ramos for chiding Noynoy for comparing Corona’s impeachment with the revolt that led to Edsa and placed the country back in the hands of the oligarchy.

And no, the changes that Edsa had promised did not come.

It has led the nation in the grip of a few, often clashing, sometimes working together.

They were a team against Erap, they are enemies this time.

Gloria knows where to hurt Noynoy most, and the willing agent in Corona has declared the distribution of Hacienda Luisita.

It has put to waste all the protection Cory gave so his family could keep the vast track of that former sugar land when she took over on the strength of Edsa. But it is welcome news to the tillers, but for whom Gloria and Corona could not be heroes.

In fact, they are part of the growing number of people growing impatient with the impeachment proceedings.

Yes they want Gloria jailed.

Yes, they want Corona out.

Yes, they all want a clean government for a change.

But no, most of the politically aware set do not believe these would happen in Noynoy’s term.

As FVR said, it’s all politics.

The impeachment trial is part of Noynoy’s plan to consolidate his forces for 2013 and 2016. And despite his denials, or projection of non-commitment, Hacienda Luisita plays a big part in his efforts to eject Corona from the Supreme Court.

History will reveal our blunders. And these will be parts of it.