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"If I am elected president, I will release her, why? because the evidence (against her) is weak. I know that. I am a lawyer."

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On May 11, 2016, the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court acquitted former Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos on charges of graft in connection with the aborted proposal to put up a national broadband network in 2007. It took the anti-graft court all this time to find that the prosecution failed to come up with enough evidence to convict Abalos. 


This bring to mind the Duterte's promise to release Arroyo.


It seems, the courts and state prosecutors, blinded for so long by the political hatred and vindictiveness of Malacañang and egged on shamelessly by its sycophants in the media, are suddenly re-learning the rules of evidence.


There is no doubt whatsoever that Duterte will make good on his promise to have Arroyo freed on the basis of the lack of real evidence against her, just like Abalos was. This despite the all-pervasive propaganda campaign waged against Arroyo, whose continued detention even the United Nations formally sought to end, with no apparent effect on Malacañang Palace and its servile - but highly selective - anti-corruption crusaders in the judiciary.


It takes someone like Duterte to knock some sense back into a judiciary that was bullied into submission by President Noynoy BS Aquino for six years. Hopefully by the time Duterte steps down, he will have undone the damage to that institution, among the many others destroyed by his vendetta - obsessed predecessor.


On the other hand, I hope Duterte's prosecutorial smarts will lead him to go after the corrupt officials and lawmakers who made hay even as Aquino was declaring how clean his government was - as long as the evidence warrants it, of course. I pray that Duterte pursues charges against the abusers of Congress' pork barrel and the Disbursement Acceleration Program, the corrupt officials at the Transportation Department and a host of other agencies, not out of a sense of political revenge but because they stole the people's money while claiming to be Aquino's fellow travelers on the daang matuwid.


The thieves who held high office during Aquino's term, after all, are as bad as - or even worse than, considering the damage they caused - the drug dealers and other criminals that Duterte has promised to go after. 


And if the trail of corruption goes all the way to Aquino, as many have long suspected, then let him answer the charges against him, as well.


I do wish that Duterte focuses on the urgent problems besetting the nation that require immediate attention - things like the lack of public infrastructure, the decline of agricultural productivity and the deteriorating peace and order situation. But that should not mean that the thieves who enjoyed blanket immunity and protection under Aquino should be allowed to go scot-free.


Let justice be done, though the Yellow idols fall. That is the only way to make amends to those persecuted by BS Aquino out of his overweening hatred and vindictiveness.


Sources: 
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Undoing the damage, <a href="http://thestandard.com.ph/opinion/columns/lowdown-by-jojo-robles/205396/undoing-the-damage.html" class="news_link" target="_blank" title="Source">Lowdown by Jojo Robles, May 12, 2016</a>
</li>
<li>
Ex-Comelec chair Abalos acquitted from graft over NBN-ZTE deal, <a href="http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/785024/ex-comelec-chair-abalos-acquitted-from-graft-over-nbn-zte-deal" class="news_link" target="_blank" title="Source">inquirer.net, May 11, 2016</a>
</li>
</ol>



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If elected I will release Gloria Arroyo, go after criminals - Duterte's campaign promises