Everyone is spewing his and her wrath on Janet Napoles for
how she plundered money from Filipino taxpayers without batting an eyelash, or
a hint of a conscience, and then living a lifestyle that would put to shame even
legitimate self-made billionaires. If
the wrath is made of fire then she would have been toasted to bits by now, dark
foul-smelling bits. That is if she could
be found. Or if she understands wrath in
the first place. Or if indeed fire can
penetrate her thick skin because apparently, she is made of sterner stuff, if
you didn’t notice.
She deserves the scorn, hatred and punishment that is
commensurate to the desecration of the lives of millions, such as being toasted
to bits. But something is wrong. Alarmingly wrong. We are, it seems, missing the point,
mistaking the rotten Napoles tree for the entire dark corruption forest. She couldn’t do it alone. That’s a fact. She is merely a rotten opportunist taking
advantage of an opening made possible by bigger and more rotten opportunistic
worms who bore holes in the pork barrel.
They are also known as Senators, and Congressmen, and people in high
government positions; those whose positions demand that they be called “Your
Honor My Ass.”
At least Napoles did not promise she would serve the people,
she is a rotten thief after all, not a public servant; thieves do not announce
when they are going to strike. But
politicians promised they would, not that they are believed that they really
would, but at least they can be made accountable to their word, for whatever it
was worth, which to many poor voters, apparently is everything.
Where is the righteous indignation Jinggoy Estrada regularly
dishes when he interrogates hapless witnesses and resource speakers in Senate
investigations? Hundreds of millions of
pesos of his pork barrel disappearing in a black hole and the best he could do
is wash his hands? Or claim that he is too
big to check the little details, like for example if the NGOs he is signing the
citizens’ money to are in fact legit? Or
maybe he knows that they are not that’s why he signed them away with gusto, and
that probably explains his lamest of lame alibi. Come on, you could be more imaginative than
that, Your Honor My Ass Senator Jinggoy.
At least Bong Revilla, your childhood buddy and co-B movie
actor, who by the way also released tons of money away to phony NGOs, does not
actively take the stage in senate investigations, he is too busy acting as if
he is listening and contemplating the facts and evidences, reading them as if they were lines in the scripts of his unimaginative Panday movies. And mind you, he is setting his sights on the
presidency in 2016, a fact that he conveniently uses to deflect questions why his
pork barrel also found its way into the Napoles black hole: Gusto-lang-nilang-idiskaril-ang-aking-political-plans
My Ass.
The grand old lord of Philippine politics, Juan Ponce Enrile
is likewise silent, which is golden, and which is also probably the worth of
his pork barrel over centuries of his servitude to the Filipino people My Ass. Yup, he steered the Corona impeachment mighty
well, showcasing his encyclopedic knowledge of the Philippine laws. And perhaps because of this knowledge
combined with his grasp of the Philippine political psyche which he, himself,
helped shape since Martial Law days, has greatly helped him deduce that using
money to fund ghost projects – or giving away Senate money as Christmas gifts
to allies -- is a magic trick that one can pull off even with the clumsiest
sleight of hand. And when confronted he just needs to scowl,
whip up the imagined unblemished centuries-long track record of servitude to
motherland My Ass, and dare accusers to show evidence to prove any wrongdoings. If that’s not enough, he can always resign
from a post (Senate Presidency) that is certainly not going to be his anyway.
Oh, and they are not the only ones. I’m sure many senators and congressmen, even
those who are allied to the administration (calling the surprisingly silent Trillanes)
have their own share of disappearing pork barrel funds, or if they’re not
involved in such trickery then they are still equally guilty because they know
that such things happen regularly but instead they choose to look away, washing their
hands by claiming, but-we-are-true-to-our-part-of-the-pork My Ass.
So yes we can spew our wrath on Napoles and her family as we
should and we must. But hey, the biggest
and most vile scorn must be dealt to the politicians who allowed this system to
be institutionalized. While mothers
scrounge for grains to line their starving children’s stomach, politico’s
children nimbly wipe away the slightest grease off their lips after partaking of
bland tasting meals from fancy restaurants before hopping on to their sleek
shiny rides that would spew high-octane exhaust on the noses of streetchildren
who would perhaps wish that they too had parents who could afford such lavish
things.
And to think society places great respect to those who look
disente, mabango and kagalang-galang My Ass.
Well, rotten politicians and their families can certainly dress and look
the part because that’s all that they could do – dress and look the part,
because they are rotten as hell to the core.
Mr. President, before your mother died and you announced
your candidacy, I was prepared to not vote for any candidate because I didn’t
believe that those who signified their intention for running really had good
intentions. I voted for you not because
I believed in you, but because I believed in what your parents stood for, and
never mind that I consider your sister Kris as the most self-centered
individual in the face of Philippine show business. You have shown streaks of hardheadedness,
show some of it now.
Please, stop the pork barrel system now and send to jail
everyone who abused it – friend or foe, more so if he is a friend.
I would love to hear you say to your friends in politics:
Kaibigan kita pero boss ko ang mga tao at gusto ka nilang maparusahan sa
pandarambong mo sa kanilang pera at tiwala.
If all 24 senators and the almost 300 congressmen go to jail
if they are found guilty of shaming a nation, then so be it. I don’t think our nation’s government will
stop. In fact, it may even move, at
last.
I am not thirsting for blood, or seeking to see heads
roll. I simply want change. Not only in the system but in the blanket of
apathy that shrouds the citizenry. “Bakit
nga naman mag-iingay o makiki-alam kung wala rin namang mangyayari.” This is
the mantra of the common people that must be turned around.
Only when people can see that those that have mocked and
deprived them of their lot and dignity burn into rotten bits can there be a
cathartic release for a citizenry looking for change, but too tired and too
numb to care.
Let us not forget that it is not only the Napoleses that
deserve our wrath. It is everyone who
promised service in exchange for our votes.
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