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Come June 30, President-elect Sen. Benigno Simeon Aquino III will take over as the new President of this country, replacing Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who will end her nine year stint as President and assume her new role as a representative in the lower House of Congress.

This change in the leadership of the country comes at a time when the people want to have real and meaningful changes in their lives after suffering from the depredations visited upon them by the out-going President who will depart from Malacanang as one of the least popular leader that this country has ever had.

While the full and final accounting of her regime still remains to be done, GMA’s stewardship of the highest position of the land has been marked by wanton graft and corruption and rampant violations of human rights, even as the economy continued to deteriorate despite her claims to the contrary. Let’s not forget that hers was a lying presidency.

In the dying days of the outgoing administration, we continue to see how the culture of impunity cultivated and propagated by GMA and her cohorts continue to claim the lives of media people and activists. This is one bloody legacy that GMA cannot live down until her dying day.

But as we witness a change in the leadership of the country on Wednesday, can we lay all the blame on just one person – GMA in this case – for all the mess we are in? Or shall we not apportion some measure of responsibility to those closest to her, say for instance, those in her cabinet and other close allies?

In the same manner that the accomplishment of a heroic leader is not his or hers alone, outstanding his or her role maybe, similarly a measure of accountability must go to those who helped the leader perpetrate whatever he or she has visited upon the country.

This was the principle invoked during the Nuremberg trials when Nazi generals and other leaders of Hitler were made to account for the various crimes perpetrated during World War II. It was not the work of Adolf Hitler alone for he could not have done it all by himself. So, those found guilty were eventually hanged for their crimes.

GMA and her cohorts may not have committed crimes as heinous as those perpetrated during the last World War. But certainly criminal acts were visited upon the people whom they were supposed to serve during their terms in office. Unless a closure is done on these issues, the Aquino leadership would have fallen short of its promise to the Filipino people.

This will serve as a timely reminder, too, for the incoming administration of Sen. Benigno Aquino III. Some of those joining the cabinet are recycled subalterns of the outgoing administration. They are not completely innocent of the many crimes of the Arroyo administration against the people.

They have called for GMA’s resignation then, but there are still some accounting to be done during their previous stay in office. Unless this is done, the change in leadership is not complete.

And when the change is not complete, the thieving, lying and murderous ways of the past will continue to infect the highest office of the land. # nordis.net