the sandiganbayan special division delivered the verdict on the plunder and perjury cases of former president erap estrada. guilty for the crime of plunder but acquitted of perjury (read the decision here).

admittedly, the decision as regards plunder did not surprise me. what with the 600+ page plaintiff's memorandum, 79(or so) witnesses and other evidence adduced vis-a-vis estrada's testimony. plus there's crispin remulla's political question angle.

i listened to the delivery on an AM station on my way to school this morning and was more than a little bit surprised to find out that in lieu of reading the entire decision, what was read was only the dispositive portion. so much for building up suspense. :s but seriously, what i found strange was that he would be convicted of plunder, but acquitted of perjury. i will have to brush up on my (little) knowledge of the anti-plunder law AND i'm pretty sure that the elements of perjury aren't included in plunder, but how can one who is guilty of plunder have, in good faith and without malice, filed his statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth? oh well. i figured it was a token acquittal of sorts. but then again i could be wrong.

i just watched one of estrada's supporters on CNN. she said, in tagalog, something along the lines of, "there's no justice with gloria macapagal-arroyo, there's no justice with the sandiganbayan." of course if the verdict had been one of acquittal, we would have the anti-erap camps crying foul. on my way home today, i passed by santolan and as i was about to cross edsa to the other side, i saw a banner hanging by the fly-over. it was in tagalog and i don't remember the exact words but basically the message was about not questioning whatever decision came out. i'm assuming it was placed there BEFORE the verdict as a sort of foreshadowing of the imminent noise that would be raised irrespective of the outcome.

received this text message this morning:
Pag may kudeta sa Pilipinas:
American:We fully support GMA!
French:We will send troops!
Pinoy:May pasok ba bukas?

i have to admit i found it funny. but it's funniness stemmed not so much from its being inherently so but more of from its basis in fact. i may be over-generalizing, but i do not think the plunder trial garnered as much attention as it should have being an issue of utmost public interest. i can't explain why, but lately, that seems to be the trend. take this year's SONA for instance. some of us went to commonwealth for QRT duty and were surprised by the volume, or rather, lack thereof. two years ago, i attended the SONA and we actually had to WALK from UP up to Ever Gotesco because not only was commonwealth blocked from philcoa but it would have been impossible for any car to get by given the number of people. in two years the numbers drastically dwindled. i'm not saying that people SHOULD care when maybe they really don't or have other things to think about. that sort of thing cannot be imposed. it's just my observation that especially lately, interest in public affairs seems to have diminished.

today felt like any other day.

first year law student.kid at heart.idealist.optimist (except about myself).hopeless romantic.daydream believer.dreamer.klutz(hehe).


lay-out
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{AKBAYAN Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel}
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"I don't care if I never grow up
Don't want to shrink in a suit
Don't want live just to suck someones bones dry
I'd rather die."
- Chris Trapper, Waiting Watching Wishing

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