Untruth Commission

Separate Opinion : An expensive superfluity

Isagani Cruz
Inquirer News Service

SO many lies have been bandied around these days, so let me talk about the Truth Commission. It is another fiction.

It is intended to examine the charges against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the legislative investigations, and possibly in her impeachment trial, about the Garci tapes and the "jueteng" illegal lottery scandal. If the reports are accurate, it is she who will create the Truth Commission, or more believably, she is at least proposing its creation by Congress.

As I have been mentioned for membership in the body, let me say at the outset that I am not interested. I am complimented by the suggestion but, on the remote assumption that I will be invited to it, I will gratefully decline. I am proud to say that I am persona non grata to both the administration and the opposition and have no wish to be identified with either of them.

Some self-appointed constitutional experts have opined that the Truth Commission is unconstitutional, but I do not think so. If its only purpose is to seek the truth, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. But it would be different if its purpose was to twist the truth for the benefit of certain parties, be it Ms Arroyo or her critics. That would make it unreliable although still not unconstitutional.

What would make it unconstitutional is if the law were to provide that its findings would be legally binding and conclusive on the legislative investigating committees and also on the impeachment trial by the Senate. I do not think, however, that Congress, for all its follies, would be so foolish as to call for such ridiculous effect. Such a law would be invalid on its face for being incredibly presumptuous.

What then will be the use of the Truth Commission? Nothing. It would simply be the instrument for the ventilation of more lies by the parties peddling them for their own purposes. The members of the body would be the ineffectual audience and, worse, the unwilling purveyors of such propaganda. And all this would have to be done at considerable public expense.

The parties pro and con in the Arroyo drama have their own machines to publicize their respective positions, such as they are. The media can announce their arguments as news without cost of the taxpayers' money. Both the administration and the opposition have enough funds for this purpose without leaning on the Truth Commission for the dissemination of their conflicting ideas. Ordinary taxpayers do not have to contribute to the charade that is intended to deceive them.

The best argument that will render the proposed Truth Commission hors de combat is that its members will be appointed by President Arroyo. No one else can exercise that power under the Constitution. So, even if she discharges that function with utmost impartiality, there will still be that doubt in the public mind about her motives. Given her alleged indiscretions in the principal subjects to be investigated by the body, the Truth Commission will be dead even before it is born.

We had similar commissions in the past that were essentially fact-finding and without any adjudicatory powers. The Davide Commission during the Fidel Ramos administration and the Feliciano Commission to investigate the Oakwood mutiny enjoyed their brief glory but did not usurp judicial functions. The Narvasa Commission ordered by President Joseph Estrada to study changes in the Constitution was practically ignored although it also cost plenty of public funds.

Instead of wasting money on the Truth Commission, the government could spend for the resolute search and apprehension of Virgilio Garcillano, whose presence and testimony are necessary for the investigation by the five committees of the House of Representatives of the alleged irregularities in the presidential elections last year. Public funds intended for the Truth Commission could be better used for the protection of witnesses afraid to testify in the jueteng probe being conducted by the Senate.

If these objectives are unwelcome to the government, the money that can be saved by not creating the Truth Commission can be devoted to the purchase of school equipment and supplies for the 30,000 classrooms established by President Arroyo, as announced in her State of the Nation Address, or the distribution of medicines to the poor, or the feeding of the street children, beggars, and other worthy projects. The Truth Commission is not one of them.

The investigation and resolution of public issues should be undertaken by the legislative committees or the courts of justice and not the Truth Commission. In the case of impeachment, the proper and exclusive venue is the Senate. The Truth Commission can only be an interloper exercising improper functions for no other purpose than to promote partisan ends and personal egotism. It can only be an expensive superfluity that should not be allowed to exist.