Rule of law

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor CHERYL CRUZ Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Makati City Mayor Junjun Binay accepted the suspension issued by the Ombudsman after a day of tumultuous confrontation between the police and his supporters. The police were escorting and protecting the personnel from the Department of the Interior and Local Government that were directed to serve the order. Unable to give the suspension personally to the Mayor, the DILG personnel had to post it in the wall of City Hall.

The commotion and the resulting altercation between the police and Vice President Jejomar Binay are an unfortunate sight and do not send a good message to the public. The Vice President stooped down on a police officer who is his junior way down the government hierarchy. It was beneath the dignity of his office and person to join a rabble defying the legal order of the Ombudsman.

There might be truth to the accusation that the Ombudsman was partial and had been used for political persecution. That is best left to the court of public opinion or the judicial system where redress of grievances is enshrined by the Constitution.

Mayor Binay eventually bowed to the rule of law. That would have been the proper posture at the start than resorting to mob rule. By receiving the order and immediately stepping aside would have won the Binays public sympathy which is good politics.

On several instances, elected public officials have defied the Ombudsman barricading themselves inside their offices as if these are their personal abode and continue to use public property and funds to keep them inside. This scene irritates the public for they show that the rule of law is but a rule of force and intimidation.

This actuation the nation cannot and should not tolerate.*