- Serge says Angara angling for VP post. Not surprising. Matagal na nating sinasabi na "palace mole" yang si Angara eh noong pang campaign manager siya ni FPJ.
- JB Baylon on how to tell which businessmen is on which side of the GLORIAGATE divide.
- Smoke and Mirrors lang ang "truth commission" na proposal.
THE idea of a Truth Commission seems like a good thing. But, looking at the truth commissions set up in other countries, we find that the Philippine idea is far removed from the other truth commissions that have been set up in other parts of the world.
The Truth Commission that has been set up by Malacañang would find out what happened – whether Gloria Arroyo was guilty of electoral fraud and worse crimes. Truth commissions that had been set up elsewhere began from the fact that crimes against peoples and nations had been committed. Truth commissions had been set up in Haiti, El Salvador, Burundi and other countries. Always, before these were set up, the fact of criminal neglect or criminal offenses had already been established.
In South Africa where they have one (and where I suppose the proponents picked up the name, if not the purpose), the premise was that apartheid was wrong and that crimes were committed in its name. That part was already presumed. This was common knowledge. What the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Committee on Human Rights Violations, the Committee on Amnesty and the Committee on Reparation and Rehabilitation set out to do was to make things right again in the Republic of South Africa.
Certainly, the South Africans did not need to have a truth commission to find out whether of not apartheid was wrong or even that excesses were committed in apartheid’s name. Here, we seem to be poised to find out whether cheating and lying were wrong. I will tell you that they are. Why do we even need a commission to find that out?
In South Africa, they decided that the only way to do this properly was for those who committed crimes in the name of Apartheid to own up to their errors.
According to South Africa’s "Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act", their purpose was "the investigation and the establishment of as complete a picture as possible of the nature, causes and extent of gross violations of human rights committed, within or outside the Republic, emanating from the conflicts of the past, and the fate or whereabouts of the victims of such violations; the granting of amnesty to persons who make full disclosure of all the relevant facts relating to acts associated with a political objective committed in the course of the conflicts of the past; affording victims an opportunity to relate the violations they suffered; the taking of measures aimed at the granting of reparation to, and the rehabilitation and the restoration of the human and civil dignity of, victims of violations of human rights; reporting to the Nation about such violations and victims; the making of recommendations aimed at the prevention of the commission of gross violations of human rights."
After all those high-minded purposes, how does the idea of a local truth commission compare? We are setting up one to find out whether Gloria Arroyo committed any crimes.
Truth to tell, fact-finding is not a proper purpose for such a commission. We have our regular courts and an impeachment process to do that for us. We even have fact-finding commissions that will do that for us as in the Agrava Commission to find out who killed Ninoy Aquino.
The truth commission is a useless contraption created to try to save Gloria Arroyo’s thick hide. This is a smoke and mirrors act that, sadly, will not work. After all, eight out of ten of us already want her to go by whatever means, foul or fair. She has no credibility; neither will whoever she appoints have any credibility with the people. Even the credible ones will lose whatever trust the people have in them.
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