Issue Analysis No. 06
July 2005

ASSAULTING THE TRUTH

THE ARROYO government, as Archbishop Oscar Cruz so aptly describes it, is without values, morals and principles, and one of the values it least respects is truth. Archbishop Cruz alleges that it has bribed and threatened witnesses implicating Mrs. Arroyo and her family in the jueteng pay-offs scandal. But even if true, that would be only one of the many instances through which it has resorted to all sorts of devices to remain in power by keeping the truth from the public.

When the “Hello Garci” scandal was about to break out last June, for example, Malacanang tried to discredit whatever recordings the opposition would make public by claiming that these had been doctored, and that, indeed, it had the original ones—in which a woman who sounded like Mrs. Arroyo was talking to someone Malacanang said was a “Gary” who was other than “Garci” (former Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcellano).

In making this claim, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye initially said the woman was definitely Mrs. Arroyo, only to declare later that he wasn’t sure, and that, in any case, he was only expressing an opinion. Later Mrs. Arroyo admitted to a mere “lapse in judgment” in talking to the man in the tapes—whom she would not confirm was Garcillano—supposedly to “protect” her votes.

The list goes on and on. What’s more, the list is likely to lengthen further, ironically through, among other vehicles, the so-called “Truth Commission” Mrs. Arroyo said last July 19 she would organize, and whose membership she said she would announce by July 25.

Mrs. Arroyo has so far not done either. Instead, what she has announced is that (1) the Commission would have no power other than that of fact-finding, and (2) its mandate would include not only the investigation of the charges of electoral fraud leveled against her, but also on the “destabilization conspiracy” that Malacanang claims was behind the allegations.

Although an outrage—not only is the accused creating a body to investigate herself, much like a murderer’s selecting the judge and jury in his own trial; she is also turning the tables on her accusers by investigating them, which is roughly equivalent to the same murderer’s ordering the judge to investigate the prosecutor—it was expected. The alacrity with which Mrs. Arroyo grabbed at the suggestion of the University of Santo Tomas, the Catholic Bishops Conference, and the Bishops-Businessmen’s Conference to create the Commission was a clear indication that this is exactly what she wanted, and that she intends to use the Commission to conceal rather than find the truth.

How she intends to do that is becoming clearer by the day. Mrs. Arroyo will first of all create the commission through an executive order. She will define its functions. She will decide its responsibilities. She will specify its objectives, membership, and organization. She will create its budget. She will name the members herself. And, as she announced last July 27, she will include in its mandate not only that of looking into the allegations that she cheated in the May 2004 elections with the connivance of key Commission on Elections as well as police, military and civilian bureaucracy officials, but also that of looking into the “conspiracy” supposedly behind the allegations against her.

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