ON THE FACE of it, Erap has nothing but concern for the torture victims. Interviewed by the Manila Times in Zamboanga last Friday, the President said he personally persuaded Imelda Marcos and her children to give up $150 million to indemnify them. He felt a special sense of urgency in doing so. "These people (the torture victims) are suffering," he said. "They are getting old. They might not be able to benefit from this."

The courts, he said, had already taken a long time to resolve the case. And they would probably take longer to put the money in the hands of the victims. So the deal he struck with the Marcoses stood to benefit the torture victims most of all. Not government, not the Marcoses, but the torture victims most of all.

Indeed, with the success of these negotiations, Erap continued, he was confident he would be able to successfully conclude the even bigger negotiations involving the Marcos assets. "Nakikita nating mas madali kung merong negotiations like this one. This shows na kung mapapa-agree natin si Mrs. Marcos, it will be easier for us to get the money. (We can see that negotiations like this make things easier. If we can get Mrs. Marcos to agree, it will be easier for us to get the money.)"

Well, true enough, the torture victims have waited for far too long and can do with getting their due from the tyrants who oppressed them. $150 million may not ease the victims' pain or sense of loss, but it may at least help them rebuild their lives and those of their loved ones. Etta Rosales is right about that. No amount of money can ever pay for what the victims of torture, or the kin of the "salvaged" and disappeared, went through, or are going through. Many of their wounds, particularly those inflicted in the mind or soul, remain open even after all these years. But they do deserve to get the money: that is the least of what they deserve.

In that sense, yes, I agree: Erap deserves credit for hastening the process. Erap deserves credit for pushing for a deal that also benefits the torture victims. But I won't go so far as to call it a triumph for the Estrada administration. That is where I part ways with Etta who has called it so. A triumph for the torture victims, yes. A triumph for the prosecution, yes. But not a triumph for the Estrada administration.

As it is, it's far from being a triumph even for the torture victims and their lawyers. Imelda has inserted a clause in the deal that finds her and her husband innocent of the charges against them and frees them from further prosecution. A clause that has proven so unacceptable even to those who can already smell the $150 million that they have risen to protest the stench that has suddenly enveloped the money.

That is why I say the deal is not a triumph for the Estrada administration. Indeed, in a far deeper sense than that the administration has failed to exercise care and vigilance in forging that deal. If Imelda and her children have been emboldened to act the way they do and say the things they do, it is not just for lack of protestation from Erap. It is also for a great deal of encouragement from him. Tacit, maybe, but encouragement nonetheless.

Look at Erap's statements again. Nowhere there will you find any reference to justice. Nowhere there will you find any hint, suggestion, inkling, evocation, or invocation of justice. Nowhere there will you find any implication that people who are being paid the $150 million were tyrannized beyond words and deserve to be given back at least a small portion of what they lost. Nowhere there will you find any allusion to the fact that the torture victims became torture victims because they fought to overthrow a tyranny and deserve at the very least an apology from the Marcoses and at the very most the eternal gratitude of their nation.

What you will find there instead is the suggestion that the torture victims ought to be thankful to the President for brokering a deal that pays them off for their pains. What you will find there instead is the suggestion that the torture victims are objects of charity, a pitiable lot who, like the veterans of World War II, have waited all these years to get their backpay, and who might not live to see their backpay if the courts had their way. What you will find there instead is the suggestion that all it takes is a personal touch and persuasion, rather than militancy and coercion, to separate Imelda and her children from their money.

Is it a wonder Imee can say with a straight face that the Marcoses were never found guilty of any crime and have nothing to apologize for? Is it a wonder Bongbong can say with righteous anger that the torture victims are a venal lot who have nothing in their minds but money? Is it a wonder Imelda can be emboldened to insert a clause that frees them forever from being made to pay for their sins?

These things did not arise by accident. Neither are they merely the product of the Marcoses discovering bravado overnight. They never felt free to utter those words even during Fidel Ramos' time. They have felt free to utter those words only during Erap's time. For a simple reason: They are taking their cue from him. They are taking their cue from his actions, all of which go to show that the time for restoring the houses of the Marcoses and their cronies is now. They are taking their cue from his utterances, all of which go to show that they are under no moral obligation to make amends, they may do so only out of political expediency and the goodness of their hearts.

In the Arab world at least, as many Filipino overseas workers have found out, people who pay blood money--which is the only way to avoid death for crimes like rape and murder--must first humble themselves before the victims, or the kin of their victims. They must first admit the harm they have done, and they must ask their forgiveness. That is the condition for paying, that is the condition for so insulting a thing as handing over money to make up for life or honor. And we have the gall to think they are such cruel and primitive societies. And we have the gall to think we are such a just and enlightened society.

The torture victims may grow old and die before they see their money? Better that they grew old and died than see this kind of blood money! It is far too little money for far too much blood.