Sham crusade

From any point of view, President Aquino’s avowed fight against corruption is looking more and more like a propaganda move than a real honest to goodness attempt to clean and reform our government. It is merely all about creating the impression and projecting an image that he is indeed “honest” to the core. “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap” is turning out to be just another empty slogan because the poor in our country are becoming poorer and increasing in number even when the economy is reportedly improving quite impressively. In fact the problem of poverty is now worsening and this is simply because corruption is increasing and becoming more rampant now if we follow this slogan. Kung maraming corrupt, maraming mahirap is the more appropriate slogan under this regime.

In fact, one of Aquino’s propagandists has practically admitted and realized what is happening in our country now. In a recent press interview, he blurted out that Aquino did not promise the people, a “rose garden” when he took over the reins of government. Apparently, this is another ploy to delude the people into believing that Aquino has not been remiss in complying with his promise. The people themselves just expected more than what he promised. So this spokesman is practically telling us this time around that it is not Aquino’s fault if corruption remains unabated because the real culprit here is the existing system where it is really hard to slay the dragon of corruption lurking in every nook and corner of the bureaucracy.

He may have a point there. Aquino did not actually promise the “rose garden” which is really quite an impossible dream. But actually the people did not expect that from Aquino. They only expected him to wage his fight against corruption without fear or favor and with fairness and justice to all concerned, friend or foe alike, party mates or non-party mates. But as it is now turning out, Aquino’s crusade is directed mainly against the political enemies of his administration. Such stance is a clear sign that his crusade is politically motivated and mainly designed to eliminate the opposition so that his party can remain in power. Many other Senators and Congressmen, past or present have availed of the pork barrel including Aquino himself. Why is there no report by the Chairwoman of Commission on Audit (COA) appointed by Aquino as to how they use their pork barrel?

Apparently many other anomalies are also prevalent in other Executive departments and agencies of the present administration that have not been fully reported or aired and/or have been relegated to the inside pages of the major papers to give way to news that have been overly sensationalized through the manipulation of the propagandists of this administration. Now and then we hear or read reports on the multi-billion pesos anomalous deals and transactions in the Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC). But so far, no concrete actions similar to that taken against the three Senators have been instituted against them.

Notable among the anomalies under the present administration are the rice smuggling under the nose of the DA, the highly questionable awards of multi-billion projects in the DOTC and the increase in the volume of smuggling of imported goods in the Bureau of Customs. While they have been exposed and reported in the papers, their investigations have not been relentlessly and vigorously pursued like the 10 billion pesos pork barrel scam mostly involving legislators belonging to the opposition. The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee initiated the investigation on the rice smuggling but after a few days, nothing more have been heard about said investigation.

With respect to the DOTC shady deal about the MRT trains exposed by no less than the Ambassador of the Czech Republic that has sporadically landed in the front pages of the newspapers, the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee has kept its hands off it like a hot potato. President Aquino has supposedly ordered its investigation but as expected, said investigations are bound to end in a whitewash. In fact the DOTC which has control and supervision of the MRT has already cleared its manager accused by the Ambassador of demanding a $30 million payoff for the award of the deal to the Czech Company Inekon. Then it has also been reported that the NBI will also eventually clear said manager. Because of this whitewash, charges have been aired that this administration is coddling the manager because he is only fronting for some top official or the relative of Aquino himself.

Indeed the fact that Aquino did not abolish but even increased the pork barrel three times is already a concrete sign that his crusade against graft and corruption was a sham. The most deplorable aspect here is that Aquino himself used that pork to convince and hold sway over the Legislative Branch of our government in carrying out his wishes. This is the first time in history has the reputation of our Senate been so tainted with dirt. And Aquino cannot completely wash his hands off from these unfortunate developments which could have been prevented if he abolished the pork barrel. On the contrary his administration even concocted a new form of pork which was designated as the discretionary fund for Development Acceleration Program.

With such a fake crusade, Aquino’s administration has made it clearer that government service and corruption really go together; that people enter government service whether by election or by appointment, because they know they will be richer and even earn the respect and admiration of people after they retire, for their ability to acquire unexplained wealth. The irony here is that the few who served honestly and end up poorer while in office are readily forgotten and even derided for their “unexplained poverty.”

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