A recent full-page advertisement called for rejection of “a morally bankrupt government,” which is the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regime. It mentioned several acts of moral bankruptcy -- among them the Joc-Joc Bolante fertilizer scam, the repressive CPR (calibrated preemptive response) policy, the ZTE scandal, the “cash gifts” distributed to congressmen and local officials right in Malacañang.

Hardly had the ink dried on the ad when the Arroyo regime did the following:

1. It appointed Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, head of the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan’s special division that found Joseph Estrada guilty of plunder, as associate justice of the Supreme Court. No matter how qualified for and deserving De Castro is of the position, it is impossible not to see her appointment to the high court as a reward for convicting Estrada. The timing of the appointment, so soon after the conviction, rules out any other conclusion.

2. The European peregrination of President Arroyo and her family (together with almost 40 members of the House of Representatives and close friends and relatives) -- to meet with the royalty of Spain, London and Paris -- at a time that millions of workers, peasants, urban poor and others are in the deadly and degrading grip of poverty and hunger. Doesn’t Ms Arroyo’s entourage betray utter disregard of the sensibilities of the Filipino people?

Doesn’t the caper of Sen. Antonio Trillanes and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim become understandable when viewed through the prism of a “runaway moral bankruptcy”?

AMADO GAT INCIONG, Unit 301 Union Square Condominium, 45 15th Avenue, Cubao, Quezon City