“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” – from George Orwell’s Animal Farm

Now that she is under arrest, the question arises as to how former President Gloria Arroyo should be treated. The government has already said it would not object to a “hospital arrest” since the former leader and now Pampanga representative is claiming to be ill and needs to be confined, and this is the current status quo. To Malacañang’s mind, there is no need to haul her to jail as of the moment; it is enough that the warrant for her arrest has been served, and that as such she cannot leave the country.

A growing number of people, however, are calling for Arroyo’s head, as it were, demanding that she be treated like any other accused in any other case – that is, that she be placed in jail while waiting for and during the entire course of her trial. The reasoning cannot be faulted; as someone facing a criminal charge (one that is not bail-able), Arroyo is like any other Filipino and should not receive any special treatment. She is presumed innocent until proven guilty, to be sure, but so are the thousands of other citizens who are nevertheless kept detained in government facilities.

Common decency, however, ought to compel us to show a little compassion on the former President. While there are many who doubt the seriousness of her illness, it is only proper that we presume she is as sick as she claims to be. Government cannot afford to gamble with someone’s health, not least because it may well end up making a hero out of her if it agrees to harass her this way.

Besides, treating her with a little more leniency is not only proper, it is also a foregone conclusion. Our legal system is prone to allowing the rich and powerful to get better treatment than the rest of us. Just look the accused in the 2009 Ampatuan massacre who are either still in hospital for almost two years or are making a mockery of the system by enjoying perks while being detained. The reality is that those with money and influence can get away with special treatment, and history has shown us that there is no point in pressing the issue. It seems that no matter what we do, and whether we like it or not, people like former President Arroyo will not be treated like an ordinary person.

Hope misplaced?

For journalists, especially those living and working in Mindanao, November was a difficult month of remembrances. It was on the12th day of November seven years ago that Davao City’s very own Gene Boyd Lumawag was gunned down in Jolo, Sulu after shooting that island’s beautiful sunset. And it was on the 23rd day two years ago that 58 people – 34 of them journalists – were killed in a massacre in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao province. It is to our eternal shame that Mindanao was the site for these killings, and no other place in the world can lay claim to being the deadliest for the media profession. While we in Mindanao complain that we are getting unfair treatment from the media, which insist on painting the island as “war-torn” and “lawless,” we also cannot deny the fact that many cases of media killings happened on our shores.

For this we blame the culture of violence that has prevailed here for decades, fed both by neglect of the masses and the national government’s active support of what may only be called warlords who keep private armies that do their bidding against the people. These masters of war have done more damage to Mindanao than the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the New People’s Army (NPA), two rebel groups that at least have the people in mind when they engage government troops in conflict. The warlords have no such regard for the people; indeed, they exist mainly to keep the people subservient to them, and they do everything in their power to keep the masses at bay, intimidating them and even harming or killing them if they dare question their authority.

The culture of violence is further driven by the culture of impunity, which allows the powerful to go scot-free even after committing the worst of offenses. It is also what keeps journalists in the sights of killers because they know they can literally get away with murder. The government is only nominally interested in the murder cases of journalists. The masterminds know they only need to buy time and they will have also bought freedom from prosecution for themselves. It is our hope that the present administration will follow a different path regarding this, but the way things are going with both Gene Boyd’s case and that of the Ampatuan massacre, it could well be a hope misplaced.

Jon Joaquin is the managing editor of the largest circulation newspaper in Mindanao, the Mindanao Daily Mirror in Davao City.

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