January 15, 2001, Sun Star, Editorial: Cebu: Erap's midnight cabinet,

They served the country no better than Marcos' Group of Seven or Rolex 12

Then president Ferdinand Marcos had Group of Seven or Seven Wise Men (that interestingly included Juan Ponce Enrile, now a senator judge in the impeachment trial of President Estrada). Marcos' Group of Seven or Seven Wise Men preceded Rolex 12 or 12 Apostles, comprising of 10 generals and two civilians who plotted the enforcement of martial law.

There is no name to the midnight cabinet of President Estrada but in testimonies of prosecution witnesses and reports of investigative journalists, Erap's gang was no less sinister.

Marcos' Group of Seven or Seven Wise men also met "at the witching hour," according to Conrado de Quiros in his 1997 book Dead Aim (How Marcos Ambushed Philippine Democracy). Estrada's cronies gathered from early night into the wee hours of the morning.

They would differ in the principal agenda.

Marcos' Group of Seven discussed martial law, rationalizing and planning and setting up and reviewing and correcting the apparatus that controlled the country for almost three decades.

Estrada's band of buddies partied as ideas about easy moneymaking were passed on to, and favors asked from a President who, pleased by rigged winnings at the mahjong table or plied with expensive whiskey, decided what was good for himself and his friends rather than what was good for the country.

Maybe one was worse than the other: Marcos cronies, that helped place the country in the grip of a dictatorship, stripping it of assets and dignity, or Estrada's bunch, that knew better and left our freedoms alone but piled ill-gotten money just the same.

Perhaps one was shrewder than the other: Marcos who hid his loot in inscrutable Swiss banks, most of it still beyond the reach of the government, or Estrada, who was caught stupidly stashing his in the local banks under different names.

But neither is acceptable.

It took 14 years but Filipinos eventually kicked Mr. Marcos out and the remaining Marcoses may have regained some fiefdoms and clambered up the national stage again as they continue to dodge lawsuits, but they are forever scarred in ignominy.

The impeachment trial may be thwarted by technicalities and machinations but somehow justice will rule. If the Senate tribunal is tampered with and can't remove Mr. Estrada, public wrath and scorn can.

Instructed by experience with Marcos, Filipinos can do it in much less time too.

'Yes, your Honor, I didn't'

Transcript of the Estrada impeachment trial is littered with answers of witnesses saying, Yes, I did not.

Some of them were corrected by Presiding Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. who noted the violation of the yes-positive, no-negative rule English teachers teach in school. "Yes, I have no bananas," the chief justice once wryly commented.

Davide doesn't have to worry about unclear answers. Filipinos, used to the language lapse, will know what President Estrada means if and when he testifies and says:

"Yes, Your Honor, I didn't receive any ill-gotten centavo."