Friends tell me I have been abroad too long, to expect Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez to save the day. The most cynical among them tell me everyone ends up becoming a Marcos. This is what power does. 35 years ago, Gonzalez was a young lawyer from Iloilo who was very active in fighting the dictatorship. At about that time, President Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire the top lawyer investigating the Watergate scandal, Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox. Richardson refused the order and resigned. Nixon then asked Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to carry out the order but Ruckelshaus also refused and quit. Nixon finally got Solicitor General Robert Bork to obey his order in what is now commonly referred to as the Saturday Night Massacre.

Today, the Department of Justice was snubbed by witnesses it summoned to its inquiry on the national broadband network scandal Deputy executive secretary Manuel Gaite and Erwin Santos, officer-in-charge of the Philippine Forest Corp., did not appear at the hearing. Santos had promised to attend at 8:30 a.m. but at 9:40 a.m. he sent a text message to Justice Undersecretary Ernesto Pineda’s secretary stating "I cannot attend panel hearing today. I have priority meeting with investors today, thanks".

Pineda personally spoke to both Gaite and Santos and got their assurances that they would be attending the hearings. Pineda said he was considering to ask Raul Gonzalez to request for an executive order that will grant them “coercive powers.”

"We want to know if it is possible for us to be equipped with coercive powers like the Senate to summon witnesses and documents…or at least to compel attendance," Pineda said.

This might be a beginning. On this bonus February day, for these public servants to do their job, fulfill their responsibilities to search for the truth and enforce justice.