PDAF scam an inside job

Not only is Budget Secretary Florencio Abad in the so-called Napoles list, he should prominently be included in BIR Commissioner Kim Henares' shame list as well for paying only P8,150 in income taxes covering a four-year period from 2006 to 2009.

Abad explained he paid only a supot of peanuts to the BIR because he was unemployed at the time. And I suppose Henares, no fool, will take his word for it. After all, Abad enjoys the unyielding trust and confidence of Noynoy.

Even after Janet Napoles tagged Abad as the one who walked her through the intricacies of scamming the PDAF by means of fake non-government organizations, a claim Abad casually dismissed as a barefaced lie, Noynoy remains unmoved by his side.

If this was showbiz, such clinging devotion is enough to spark rumors of a love affair. But this is realbiz, too real for the comfort of an increasing number of people who are beginning to realize they have been taken for a ride and that daang matuwid was just a ploy to seize political power.

Napoles is damaged goods. She cannot anymore be saved, and rightfully so. But if there are two things that can be fairly said on her behalf, it is that she has been publicly crucified without due process, and that she is being wrongly accused as the P10 billion PDAF scam mastermind.

Public crucifixion without due process is a social disease that is relatively new and endemic to the Philippines. Its virus was first spawned, interestingly, by the Edsa People Power Revolt that toppled the dictator Marcos and swept into power no less than the mother of Noynoy.

Edsa, as it is called, was a power grab, only that it was so popular, and generated such relief and pride, that Filipinos chose to ignore the fact that it was. A few subsequent Edsa followed, as well as a number of coups, Filipinos being such great innovators as well as copycats.

But power grabs, either by show of force as in the original Edsa, or by actual exertion as in the next Edsas and coups, proved too costly an initiative. Hence, Gloria Arroyo was never forcibly removed despite the fact that many wanted her to go before her time and by whatever means.

With force out of the question, Filipinos settled for the next best thing -- public shaming. This mode of taking people to account is ideally suited to the Philippine setting, where glaring inequalities vest some with more power and privileges than others.

Thus, people with means, sensing the inequalities, play their roles to the hilt. And no institution of power and privilege has played this role of public shaming more than both houses of Congress. Their hearings and investigations are a showcase of imposing will and shredding reputations and dignities to pieces.

Sometimes this institution sits as a court to pass judgment on erring officials and no circus best typifies the scurrilous means by which public shaming takes precedence than due process than the impeachment trial of Renato Corona.

It helped tremendously that the farce of a trial, where evidences appeared by magic in iron gates or provided by short ladies and fat men -- or was it the other way around as I forgot already, see? -- played to a showbiz-oriented public that can tick off more movie stars and their birthdays than heroes and historic dates.

And to think Janet Napoles is not yet even there, the only case filed so far being the illegal detention charge in connection with her quarrel with a cousin who has since ratted on her and is now considered the next national hero, having written something better than a novel -- a virtual dossier of scammers.

Napoles cannot be the mastermind if she got her inspiration from Abad. Besides, it is difficult to imagine how anyone, an outsider like Napoles, can summon the courage and the gall to sidle up to a high and mighty senator and tell him or her of your plan to rip off the government by the billions.

I don't know about you, but if I were Napoles, I don't think I can, for the life of me, tap, say, Juan Ponce Enrile, on the shoulder and say "Manong, I have this little plan ..." The way these things go, it has to be the other way around. The scam had to be initiated from the inside -- an inside job with outside help.