IT WON’T HAPPEN HERE

The Iraqis may be trembling in fear of terrorists, of Iraqi security forces who are rabid members of a rival sect and sympathetic of militants, of their neighbors who will rat on them, but they can count themselves lucky because the man who robbed them of freedom, of their beloved (no, it’s not George Bush), who ran Iraq like his own private reserve, will finally be sent to the gallows. The sentencing to death by hanging of Saddam Hussein is long overdue even if critics will point out that justice was attained only because of foreign intervention and the American “persuasion” because no sane Iraqi would take on Saddam when he was still in power.
Now, I only have one question. When will the Philippines follow suit? Never! It won’t happen here! No Filipino official will be sentenced to death for plunder, much less for murder. It is not that we Filipinos are really virtuous and will only let those who have not sinned cast the first stone when we catch a politician or a bureaucrat dipping his hand into the cookie jar or moonlighting as a crime kingpin. It’s because we love to compromise. Compromise with the Marcoses, pamper Erap, spoil Ka Roger and Joma (did I hear General Palparan cock his gun?), and surrender Mindanao to the secessionists.
Perhaps, we should ask the U.S. to invade us, and then set a trial for the criminals in the government. But we have no oil, and no weapons of mass destruction. (We can ask the CIA to exaggerate our military capability, say, tell Dubya that we have nuclear-armed “kwitis”. They did that to Iraq.) With our shores teeming with GIs, we can set the trial. The Yankees will police the lines to quash dissent and opposition to the trial, like what they did to Iraq.