Imelda's Corona

IN THE NICK OF TIME Arroyo appointing Corona before stepping down as president

IN AN UNPRECEDENTED DISPLAY OF transactional politics, outgoing president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, through her Executive Secretary Leandro Mendoza, has decided a couple of weeks ago to hold off in auctioning former first lady Imelda Marcos’ jewelries and relegate its sale to the next administration, citing, among other things, that her own term as chief executive is already under time constraints, a decision that so saddened Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) Commissioner Ricardo Abcede almost to the point of immobility.

Although frustrated over the decision, Abcede remained optimistic, but could only watch Sotheby’s and Christie’s (two international auction houses particularly interested in procuring the prized jewelries) leaving the country empty-handed, saying, “I will not defy the orders of PGMA or object to the request of incoming President Aquino to allow the incoming administration to handle this.” And as an acceptance of its finality, Abcede added, “Who am I to question orders?”

This time, however, the Arroyo administration maybe doing the right thing. Maybe we could only sympathize with what Abcede felt when the decision was made, but the decision somehow saved him from further questioning as far as the outgoing administration’s recent pronouncements are concerned. As pressures piling up profusely leading to the ascension of another Aquino administration, some of Arroyo’s decisions are being scrutinized, not to solidify her legacy as president in a span of almost a decade, but to etherize the effect of that decision for her to remain immune of any political trial.

Perhaps it came as a surprise to hear lately the Arroyo camp that these alleged ill-gotten wealth procured by no less than Imelda herself is left at the mercy of the next administration, an administration that has its own unfinished businesses with the Marcoses. Like a welcome respite from the usual midnight appointments we have been accustomed to since late last year, the Arroyo administration seemed bent on playing chess over its supposed limited amount of time, that even the decision to hand over these “thirty pieces of silvers” to the next president-elect was anticlimactic to the very least in a presidency that has its own unlimited complications.

The appointment of Chief Justice Renato Corona may put to rest any claims of Arroyo giving up on power. The appointment will somehow extend her grip of protection from future litigations which, from all indications, whether it be a fertilizer, a Comelec Commissioner or a broadband scheme, will ultimately put her in some unrelenting cases of graft and corruption, and even her equally unrelenting lack of transparency during her term. And so it was an appointment, since Corona was once a close cabinet member of Arroyo, which aims to represent her deliberately in some zone of political safe-keeping. That it was a strategy, though not done smoothly, which gives her enough time to gather herself from further harassments and black propaganda until such time she’d be able to utilize her will and influence as a Representative and reinstate again her hold not only to her own enigmatic machinery but also beyond its own party jurisdiction.

So from a business standpoint, it is safe to say that the Arroyo administration clearly has no use of those jewelries. They make sure that that transaction is not a concern anymore of the present, and that it will not, based on their lack of scrutiny to the significance of its worth, gain weight as far as putting a stamp on her legacy as a president is concerned. Somehow if there has to be a decision between now and the next administration, it would be that all those involved in that stolen presidency can have their own sort of extensions and not just wasting their time away with those jewelries that, in the first place, has nothing to do with being immune, politically-wise. They make sure that from hereon every decision has to be consistent with what their limitations need.

The catch is: If the Arroyo administration has the luxury to hand over the reigns of its appointive and executive juggernaut to the next administration such as in the case of Imelda’s glittering collections, why wouldn’t they apply the same scenario and practice to Chief Justice Renato Corona’s appointment if they indeed are in serious dearth of time? Not even former Solicitor General Frank Chavez with all of his legal justifications and borderline attacks on Noynoy could muster enough explanation as to why an appointment such as the one Arroyo could only summon has reasons to push through despite questionable timing and motive.

The thing is that no matter how preposterous Noynoy Aquino’s choice of barangay captain as the one administering his oath of office, we can only deduce it by being aware of its deceptive precedent when these midnight appointments from a waning dictator culminated into the ascension of a close confidant all the way through the Supreme Court.

The trust level of our political system remains narrow after undergoing so many turns in a long stretch of nine years. The outgoing president, although still deaf, dumb and blind about these twilight zone appointments, is somehow stretching the limits, over an extended period the already drained confidence of a people that no longer puts its faith to one of its own, its government. And the president-elect, who seemed to be speaking from a rough tenement in the neighborhood retaliates indirectly to that same system that no longer puts even a grain of salt, much less to a barangay captain, to the quirks and concerns of its major minority, its people.

And now that we are on the heels of a new government, a new lease on life, so to speak, the question still lingers: how much of Corona ’s appointment be of use come litigation time? Or, if litigations are a far cry from exerting itself into the inner sanctum of our next political system, up to what extent would that appointment take if issues such as changes in the Constitution, Speakership, and yes, including PCGG’s fate crops up? It is not so much as the presence of Corona that gives adrenaline to this seemingly whole-text-context appointment running around in circles, but rather it is the appointment itself that takes us over the edge, an appointment that lags behind appropriateness, accountability and ascendancy.

Otherwise, Arroyo’s fate will resemble that of Imelda’s, always on trial but never indicted.