Political implications of jailing three incumbent Senators--linked to the passage of the Bangsamoro basic law and Cha-Cha?

The Department of Justice has recommended the filing of graft charges against three incumbent senators. The Ombudsman is expected to follow suit. In the first of three expected "filing surges", three senators have been charged---Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla. These people are being accused of using their PDAF that funded bogus NGOs established by pork barrel scam queen Janet Lim-Napoles.

Senator Chiz Escudero and his colleague, Bong Bong Marcos expressed contrasting views on this, symptomatic of how divided the middle and upper middle class forces are when it comes to this issue.

Marcos, a political ally of Enrile and Estrada, called for sobriety. Marcos used the presumption of innocence card, saying that these senators ought to be given their day in court and should be treated not as criminals, but as "innocents." They haven't been adjudged guilty yet of the crime charged and therefore, as "innocent" as any other citizen out there.

Well, this is partially true. For one, a governmental agency has already found sufficient evidence to support the previous charges of graft. It will be now up to the courts, meaning the Sandiganbayan, to determine if these charges do satisfy the requisites of the crime as charged.

Escudero has expressed a view far away from the "adjudged innocent until proven guilty" view by saying that these senators deserve "common jail cells" instead of special ones. I simply dont know what Escudero means about "common cells", but if his class is to be asked, the "common cell" probably describes a nice room complete with airconditioning.

Both gentlemen missed the bus so to speak when it comes to this issue. For one, these fine gentlemen may never be jailed at all, because of the political implications of such a move by the State.

Everyone knows that in the next few months in Congress, one critical issue remains before legislators to resolve---the Bangsamoro Law.

Aquino and the MILF have signed the Bangsamoro agreement, the first legal step towards the creation of the Bangsamoro Law. Aquino is very persistent in this. He wants to leave a legacy, since he already failed on curbing graft and corruption and poverty.

The Chief Executive has done his thing. It is now up to Congress to verify what the Chief Executive had accomplished in so short a time.

In such constitutional issues, both Houses are expectedly to vote separately. With three anti-administration senators out of the picture, it would now very easy for the palace to push for their agenda since they already "politically neuthered" the House. Fact is, any administration backed measure is sure to pass the "scrunity" of the House.

Is this part of the ultimate strategy--to prevent those who are at the other side of the political fence to make their moves and oppose this Aquino legacy from being implemented?

I hope in the future, anti-graft campaigns are used to really prosecute the sinners and not those whose sin is they believe otherwise.