Rodolfo ‘Ompong’ Alvarado

By Raymund Fernandez
Cebu Daily News
Last updated 02:20pm (Mla time) 01/03/2007
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/opinion/view_article.php?article_id=41412

Even while we were preparing for New Year’s Eve, Rodolfo “Ompong” Alvarado was dying in his car, shot twice with a .45 cal pistol by three men, two of who served as lookouts. Before 5 p.m. that same day, he was declared dead on arrival at the local hospital in Albay.

Statistics say he is the 42nd activist killed in the region, the 206th casualty of political killings in 2006 and so on. But it is much better to remember him as a man with a wife, Rosanna, and, by newspaper accounts, at least two sons. He was the sixth nominee of the Bayan Muna party-list group.

The same newspaper page that reported this sordid event also said we were allegedly looking at the coming year with great hope. But after reading that day’s news, I could not help but search within me for where that hope may be hiding. I could not find it anywhere.

Opposition and administration politicians claim that the coming May polls will be the final test of GMA’s legitimacy. All questions of previous cheating at the polls will finally be settled. But with the Commission on Elections still occupied by the same people from the past elections, one can hardly feel secure with this claim.

Virgilio “Hello, Garci” Garcillano is supposed to run for congressman in Bukidnon under the administration ticket. Critics said this was only consistent with the administration’s reputation for shamelessness. I, on the other hand, would rather look at the bright side – anything to take him out of the Comelec is welcome.

Then there was the fact of the convicted rapist, American serviceman Daniel Smith, being whisked away to the United States Embassy in Manila in the middle of the night without permission from the Philippine courts. Senator Aquilino Pimentel predicted this issue would be a flashpoint in the coming year and would be a fiasco worse than the “Hello, Garci” tapes.

The issue started looking even worse as we read the words of defense for this move coming from Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales. He, of course, defended the move by the administration, citing requirements in the text of the Visiting Forces Agreement. But then he could not help issuing this addition: “In fact, there’s many Filipinos who think that Smith is not guilty.”

These words, coming as it does from a government official who is supposed to be its chief prosecutor of crimes, can only move us to worry once again about the state of the country’s justice system. For how did it ever come to pass that the secretary of justice would now be openly defending the interest of a convicted criminal? And if indeed this issue has something to do with the country’s treaty obligations, shouldn’t this issue be handled by the Department of Foreign Affairs or any of the country’s many diplomats instead of an official who, time and again, proves himself to be a most undiplomatic person?

But I worry most of all about where the secretary of justice’s premise comes from. For how would he know that many Filipinos do think Smith to be not guilty even after a Philippine court passed its verdict and even while the case is under appeal in the court? Of course, “many” can mean any number more than one.

Counting GMA’s closest cabinet members, I suppose the assertion can be defended, that is true. But for the secretary of justice, an official of the executive branch of government, to make that open claim can only be seen at the very least as disrespectful of the judiciary, which is a co-equal branch of government. It can only be interpreted as a preemptive remark that reveals the extremes the government would go to please the Americans in this issue.

If the appellate courts would support Judge Pozon’s original judgment then perhaps we can safely say justice has been served. But any judgment that would exonerate Smith or even reduce his sentence can only be held from here on with suspicion. For whether Smith is guilty or not, Gonzales has provided strong evidence that this case would be railroaded. With a friend like Gonzales, GMA’s worst enemies seem almost superfluous.

But all these pale against the crime of Rodolfo Alvarado’s murder. This early in the year, we are half-convinced the government is herding leftists back to the hills to pursue the armed struggle. Who gains most from another war? We begin to worry if we are being set up so that the VFA war games being played now eventually cease to be games and become a reality in our country.

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