YELLOW-CLAD supporters, allies and neighbors welcomed former President Benigno Aquino III on Thursday as he came home to his family residence on Times Street, Quezon City, after six years as chief executive.
The crowd thanked Mr. Aquino for his service to the nation. The former president, for his part, appeared relieved. During the past six years, he made no secret of the fact that he viewed his presidency as a burden—a task he dutifully but grudgingly took on despite the effects it had on his social life, his personal space, and even his hairline.
It appears, however, that Mr. Aquino will not be lying idle in his newly renovated home for long, as he will likely be kept busy by the numerous cases filed against him now that he has lost immunity from suit.
Those who believe he must be made to account for decisions he made during his term are not wasting any time. Just a day after Aquino’s homecoming, parents of two of the police commandos killed during the Mamasapano encounter of January 2015 filed 44 counts of reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide against Aquino, his friend former Philippine National Police Director General Alan Purisima—whom he had tasked to lead the operation despite being suspended at that time—and Special Action Force head Getulio Napenas before the Office of the Ombudsman.
Aquino, however, is not taking such suits sitting down.
“I have instructed my lawyers to study possible actions at the appropriate time against those who instigate the filing of frivolous cases, which are nothing more than harassment,” he said.
We expect to hear similar statements when more suits come in as a result of Mr. Aquino’s other official acts, including one of the most blatant abuses of the budgeting system, his illegal Disbursement Acceleration Program.
Aquino himself mastered the art of causing the filing of frivolous cases against his political enemies, all in the name of the catch phrase “Daang Matuwid.” For example, what started as eight grounds for the impeachment of the late Chief Justice Renato Corona was eventually whittled down to the fact that he had not declared all his holdings in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth. Former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, still detained at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center, faces plunder charges even as her co-accused are now all out on bail.
Certainly, the nation needs to heal and ponder ways to move forward after the divisiveness sowed by those who portrayed themselves enemies of evil. But, as Mr. Aquino liked to say during his time, this does not mean forgetting the inadequacies and excesses of the past.
In a classic case of comeuppance, that spotted past now includes him—and if he does not get the quiet, restful and uncomplicated life as a private citizen he desires, he has nobody to blame but himself.
