A portrait of Erap as a public servant

The action star turned president. The nocturnal president. The poster boy of corruption. The academically challenged president.

Joseph Estrada, "Erap" to his millions of tangahanga, suffered miserably in the past. He has been scraped off his office, cutting short his six-year Presidential into two and a half. He has been jailed and convicted. But he has been pardoned since, thanks to Madame Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

After being away for so many years from the cockfight that is politics, now he's back, vowing as he does to continue what he has started. But for lack of anything newer and better and more convincing to show to the voters why he still remains to be the best choice, Erap----or whoever is in-charge of building him up----has rummaged in his baul and found his most-prized possession: his many years of experience in public service.

In his recent campaign ad,  Erap boasts of his 17 years as a Mayor, six years as a Senator, five years as a Vice President, and two and a half years as a President.

"Ang kailangan ay 'yong may karanasan," the campaign ad further said, implying that no better candidate deserves to be a president than Erap himself because he has an extensive legislative and executive experience.

Well, what of it?

The question here is not how long has he been in public service. The question is what has he done in those years that he's in public service.

The truth of the matter---surely this will vex his staunch supporters---is that Erap's record is far from clean. True, Erap said he did nothing wrong during his presidency. But what he says, what he does, and what he says he does are three entirely different things.

Therefore we should separate Erap's word from his action. And several cold, hard facts suggest that Erap is not what he said he is: He did something wrong during, and even before, his presidency.

In "Investigating Estrada: Millions, Mansions and Mistresses," a compilation of investigative reports by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), we get a glimpse of Erap as a public servant, which is ironic because Erap is more of a master than a servant. In this thoroughly researched and punctiliously written book, investigative journalists from PCIJ shed off the many layers of myth and secrecy that veiled Erap for years. Random passages from the book give us a portrait, however incomplete, of Erap as a public official, minus the myths:

• "While Ramos used these [Presidential] powers within the broader framework of economic liberalization and reform (even as he helped out his friends), Erap merely wields it for his buddies within the broader framework of, well, friendship and a sense of entitlement to the privileges of public office. The resurrection of Estrada supporter Eduardo 'Danding' Cojuangco who is now once again the king of beer is certainly due in large to the latter's support for Estrada's candidacy. And certainly, Lucio Tan need no longer worry about his P26-billion tax evasion case now that his pal is president."


• "It is obvious that Erap's grasp of the responsibilities of the presidency is primitive. At the same time, however, he shows a keen appreciation of the perks of his position. Which may be why he does not bother to answer question about his finances. He probably thinks he is above the law, and from the looks of it, he may be right. Take the JELP development in Antipolo. Although it had been warned as early as March 1999 by the Antipolo City Planning and Development Office that it had no clearance to develop the site, JELP never got around to obtaining the necessary permits. The Ombudsman's slowness in probing the discrepancies and missing entries in his statements of assets and liabilities is another indication of the impunity that the President seems to enjoy."


• "In his statement of assets, for example, Estrada does not declare his participation in about a dozen companies in which he and his wife are major investors and board members. Neither do his asset of declarations give an idea of the magnitude of the business interests that he and his families are engaged in...In the course of several months, we obtained and examined 66 corporate records in which Estrada, his wives and his children are listed as incorporators or board members. Altogether, these  companies---31 of which were set up during Estrada's vice-presidential term and 11 since he assumed the presidency---had an authorized  capital of P893.4 million when they were registered. The President and his family members had shares of P121.5 million and paid up P5836 million of these when the companies were formed."


• In the last three years, companies controlled by cronies of President Joseph Estrada acquired close to P1 billion worth of land and houses in some of Metro Manila's poshest and most exclusive districts...Although none of these properties are registered in Estrada's name, the President or one of his wives would later live or be seen visiting the properties, sometimes even supervising construction."

It's clear thus that Erap used his position to enrich himself. Which is anathema to his campaign slogan: "Erap Para sa Mahirap." In truth, what happened was the reverse. It's the "mahirap" that is for Erap, not the other way around.

Now, do we need a public official like Erap? You be the judge.

In education, one of the attitudes that teachers avoid the most is "mile-wide, inch-deep" teaching---that which tries to cover as many topics as possible with so little in-depth discussion, that which values quantity over quality.

In the realm of politics, Erap seems like the epitome of a "mile-wide, inch-deep" public official----one who cares more about quantity rather than quality, one who stays in public office for so long a time doing so little.