Not just accounting but investigation, prosecution

In other countries, this could very well trigger an uprising. But since we are a benign people, only an accounting is being sought. And even that should not be enough. There should be a real honest-to-goodness investigation, and then the logical follow-through of aggressive prosecution. This non-disbursement of P20 billion in pandemic aid to a hungry, struggling people under Bayanihan 2 is out and out criminal.

The Bayanihan 2 law has already been extended for six months just to allow the delayed disbursement of what is supposed to be an emergency aid to distressed sectors and businesses. I hope the upcoming general elections in May 2022 and the need to fund personal campaigns have nothing to do with the delayed disbursement.

Speaking of elections, especially for president, the one we elect will be the one who will have to chart a course for 110 million Filipinos through what remains of the pandemic. He or she will make or break this nation, depending on what that course is through that unimaginable period. It is important that right now, a year before the elections, presidential wannabes start appraising us about their plans for this critical role that they aspire for.

In fact, who we elect president should focus largely on the pandemic, how we can overcome it with the least harm to the greatest number, restart the economy at the soonest time with an eye to restitution for those who lost jobs and businesses, rebuild a damaged educational system with honest acknowledgement of where it really stands.

A pandemic that has affected more than 200 countries in the world is not the time to make enemies with neighbors. We need a president whose policies in the South China Sea do not bring us to the brink of war. War should be the last thing on our minds. We need it like a hole in the head. What we need are friends, or at least neighbors we can still peacefully talk to or, better yet, cooperate with.

Let us be wary of those who talk of patriotism only as a tool to attract attention and perchance to win votes. Patriotism is not a topic for loud discussion or heated debate. It is a silent and intense flame that burns only in the heart, not in the tongue. Anybody who proclaims himself a patriot desecrates the memory of the true patriots who already earned their just rewards in God's eternal peace.

The pandemic is a real war. We do not need to go looking for another one. If we lose in both, at least in a pandemic you do not lose territory. And you do not lose your freedom. In war you can lose both. Avoiding war is not cowardice. It is prudence. This is not to say we must never go to war, only never if we can avoid it.

But before we lose track of where we started off with this piece, the next president must make it his or her personal crusade to punish those people who are sabotaging efforts to alleviate the sufferings of our people. Playing around with social amelioration programs in times of national emergency is treason. In other countries, it is unimaginable what they do to traitors.