What doesn’t kill us…

My personal banker asked me yesterday if I wanted to invest my savings in certain financial instruments. The country’s latest credit rating upgrade, she said, made it a good time to invest.

Her pitch reminded me that despite the raging corruption scandals that might bring down the two chambers of Congress, the Philippine economy is still perceived positively overseas.

This week Manila is hosting for the first time a regional event of the World Economic Forum (WEF) – another indication of the prevailing global bullishness over Philippine economic prospects.

Fears have been raised that the corruption scandals implicating about 200 lawmakers past and present – more than enough to muster a quorum in both chambers – may hold back economic growth.

On the contrary, the housecleaning should lead to a better legislature – one that is truly representative of the people, one whose members deserve the term “public servant” and the “honorable” appended to their title.

If the accusations now being hurled, most of them wantonly, prove correct, a majority of our lawmakers have brought nothing but dishonor to the legislature. They are leading by example in lying and thievery, and then lying some more when caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

When the pork barrel scandal broke, Pinoys were skeptical that any senator or prominent congressman would be punished. The fate of the Marcos clan (plus the absolute pardon for convicted plunderer Joseph Estrada) surely contributed to the skepticism.

Today, with the manure hitting the fan, Pinoys are starting to believe that the nation may soon see the mass arrest of lawmakers, including some of the longest serving senators led by martial law enforcer Juan Ponce Enrile.

* * *

Some legislators are warning that a mass arrest of all the accused crooks in Congress could paralyze government.

But why should it? Lawmakers can work while in detention.  Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is doing this as second district representative of Pampanga.

Romeo Jalosjos continued working as Zamboanga del Norte congressman, receiving all the salaries and allowances including his pork barrel allocation even after he was convicted of rape and began serving his sentence at the National Penitentiary. He even won re-election while behind bars, until the Supreme Court affirmed his conviction and his colleagues finally purged him from the roster of the House of Representatives.

Working while in detention can even improve attendance especially in the House sessions. It can compel the top absentee congressman, Negros Occidental 1st District Rep. Jules Ledesma IV, to understand the meaning of no work, no pay.

Ledesma, better known as the husband of actress Assunta De Rossi, is one of the 180 or so House members in the Commission on Audit (COA) report on lawmakers who apparently misused their pork barrel or Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

What concerns people whose taxes were looted is not that lawmakers may be arrested, but that they may escape arrest. And that once arrests are made, all the lawmakers will opt for VIP treatment particularly hospital detention.

Government hospitals are overwhelmed enough with the underprivileged needing health care. “Hospital arrest” should be limited to former presidents who are truly ailing.

We should stop indulging government officials who are healthy enough to party, travel abroad and campaign for election but suddenly get sick when arrested for corruption.

Irregular heartbeat and blood pressure shooting up? These happen to pickpockets when they are caught, or to anyone else for that matter who is arrested and thrown into our filthy, badly ventilated, vermin-infested jails. No impoverished petty thief, however, is going to enjoy “hospital arrest” for hypertension. This is reserved only for indecently wealthy, big-time thieves – and it’s time to put an end to this privilege.

If we undergo exhaustive medical tests, almost all of us can find a health problem that is not debilitating, but which may require hospital confinement if we want it. If pretenses at illness fail, influential politicians can even persuade certain hospitals to take out a perfectly healthy appendix.

* * *

Being a lawmaker does not put one above the law. It’s time for the nation to get serious about holding lawmakers and other public officials accountable for stealing people’s money and betraying public trust.

Everyone, including relatives and friends, who benefited along with the public officials from looting government coffers must suffer public opprobrium – apart from a freeze on assets.

Public condemnation must be such that plunderers will feel genuine shame and remorse, and sincerely resolve to mend their ways.

We should also stop allowing plunderers to enjoy ill-gotten wealth. Seeing those who loot public coffers enjoy and even flaunt the fruits of their crime is one of the biggest reasons for the persistence of large-scale corruption. Crime pays, and it pays obscenely well in this country.

Many vast family fortunes are built on the backs of criminal activities. This is true even in the private sector, where the most notorious smugglers, money launderers and violators of laws on banking, labor and unfair competition are the ones who are richly rewarded in our society. One day there must also be a reckoning in the private sector.

For now, the PDAF case offers a rare chance to correct some of the worst wrongs in the legislature. Only the guilty should fear this cleansing process. Friedrich Nietzsche’s insight applies here: what doesn’t kill Congress should make it strong.