free erap

i’m praying the sandiganbayan acquits erap. this will freak out the pro-arroyo world of course, because it will open up the question of whether erap has the right to be reinstated as president and finish his six-year term (since gma has already completed her sixth, and that’s all the law allows). for sure mabubulabog ang stock market at babagsak ang piso. not good for the “booming” economy, no way, even if good for the OFWs and their families.

but of course just as many, if not more, are praying that the sandiganbayan convicts erap, never mind fears of an edsa tres revisited, they think the police and the military can handle that. some even consider such fears exaggerated, and wishfully think that all we’ll hear are small and tired whimpers of protest.

as for hints of a presidential pardon (obviously to appease the edsa tres masa) in case of a conviction, erap says no thanks, he’s innocent, accepting a pardon would be an admission of guilt, he’d rather appeal his case to the supreme court, okay lang na ikulong siya sa muntinlupa meanwhile. naku. i bet he’ll change his tune if / when the supreme court affirms a conviction.

if it were up to me, should he be found guilty of plunder and perjury, i’d sentence him to the 6 years and 5 months or so that he has already served. in my book he has been punished and humiliated enough. if at all, napaka-smalltime plunderer and perjurer niya compared to marcos and his cronies. besides, knowing now what we know about gma and the generals and the davide supreme court, and given now the many sins of the arroyo administration, from pidal to garci to zte, sino naman ang may karapatan, who has any kind of moral ascendancy to judge erap guiltier than others? the church? the military? but they were part of edsa dos, as were the leftists, the NGOs, and big business. big mistake.

what if, instead of calling for erap’s ouster when we went to edsa, we called instead for davide to order the prosecutors back and proceed with the impeachment trial — sure, erap might have been acquitted, but gma wouldn’t have had to cheat in 2004. or what if we called instead for gloria arroyo to accept erap’s invitation to a council that would oversee the economy. or what if we called instead for both erap and gloria to make way for a snap election, as both senators enrile and roco preferred? we had all sorts of options but we were adolescently fixated on doing an edsa a la 1986 when the real challenge is to do better than, or to improve on, the original.