Editorial

Cloudy

members of the Justice Department?s Task Force on Anti-Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs claimed to be ?disturbed? over the insinuations of bribery in the case of the ??Alabang Boys?? and offered to resign en masse last week. The task force head, Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zu?o, said his team could not work under a cloud of doubt raised by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Authority, whose officials claimed that the families of the suspects bribed the prosecutors to release their kin.

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez rejected this offer, but now President Arroyo herself has ordered the temporary relief of Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor, Zu?o and three other prosecutors.

?No one should be spared,? according to a Palace statement. ?The full force of the government?s powers to act against those who betray the public trust should be applied swiftly and unequivocally??

Gonzalez says the directive will likely cause demoralization among Justice employees even as he insists he trusts his men. Zu?o now cries ?unfair? and says officials of the drug enforcement agency involved in the case must likewise be forced to take a leave of absence.

The involvement of any public official in a scandal, especially if he is the one accused of wrongdoing, compromises his ability to perform his job. Regardless of the truth or the falsity of the accusations, that official has lost ascendancy. There is no other option for him but to step back and clear his name first. This has a name?delicadeza.

Nowhere is this more fitting than in the case of Justice officials, whose job is to go after suspected violators of the law.

But these officials now go around saying they have no choice but to comply with the President?s orders. They sound resigned but dissatisfied. They seem to have forgotten they were the ones who offered to resign in the first place. What does this now say about their sincerity in wanting to lift that cloud of doubt?