News update Davide chosen to lead investigation vs Arroyo

The Supreme Court official who swore in then Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as president in 2001 and was later appointed ambassador has been chosen to lead the investigation into the corruption allegations that hounded her nine-year rule.

Retired chief justice Hilario Davide Jr. will lead the "independent" body that will try to provide closure to unresolved controversies under the Arroyo administration, President-elect Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III announced Tuesday.

“This Truth Commission is the commission I promised the people we will set up to put closure on so many issues. They will be collators of data, evidence, the proof as to who committed what and what transgression of our laws was committed," said Aquino, who also announced other members of his official family.

An investigation on President Arroyo by an independent commission was one of Aquino’s campaign promises.

With the "active assistance" of the Department of Justice, the commission will "as necessary, prepare and prosecute the cases to make sure those who committed crimes against the people will be made to pay," Aquino said. Aquino clarified that the body will not tackle Marcos-era-related controversies and the assassination of his father, the late Senator Benigno “Ninoy" Aquino Jr., in 1983.

He said the commission will be an "independent" body that will not produce "manufactured results for political purposes" but findings that are "based on solid evidence and facts."

List of controversies

In 1995, a similar body called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established by former South Africa President Nelson Mandela that examined atrocities committed by the apartheid government.

Controversies that hounded the nine-year Arroyo administration include the “Hello, Garci" scandal in 2005 where she was accused of manipulating the results of the previous year’s elections, the P728-million fertilizer fund scam where money for poor farmers was allegedly diverted to her campaign kitty in the 2004 polls, and the $329-million broadband deal that was scuttled after whistleblowers alleged the First Couple and other administration allies received millions of pesos in kickbacks.

In 2001, Davide presided over the impeachment trial of former President Joseph Estrada.

The proceedings were aborted after the deposed president’s allies in the Senate voted not to open an envelope that supposedly contained incriminating information against him.

Anti-Estrada sentiments culminated in a massive street uprising that forced Estrada to step down on January 20, 2001. That day, Davide administered Mrs. Arroyo’s oath as the 14th Philippine president.

That year, the Supreme Court under Davide ruled that President Arroyo’s assumption to the presidency was legitimate.

Davide retired in December 2005 when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 70.

In 2007, President Arroyo, who won a full term as president in 2004, appointed Davide as representative to the United Nations.

Davide resigned from his post in April 2010 after his family aligned itself with the Aquino-led Liberal Party.

Ties with the Aquinos

Davide's ties with the Aquino family date back to the restoration of democracy in 1986.

Shortly after she was swept to power that year, the late President Corazon Aquino formed the Constitutional Commission to draft a new Constitution, which was ratified in 1987. Davide was among those picked to become a ConCom member.

Mrs. Aquino later appointed Davide as Commission on Elections chair in February 1988. He left the post in 1989 when the President named him head of the commission that probed the December 1989 coup against the Cory administration.

Mrs. Aquino then appointed Davide as Supreme Court justice in January 1991. — KBK/ RJAB Jr./RSJ