Accountability, corruption and a glittering fashion show

There’s no lack of disturbing news in our country, whether we like it or not, but more so in recent days. How, for instance, could we allow yet another killing of a young boy, 17-year-old Jemboy Baltazar? He was the son of an overseas Filipino worker, Rodaliza, who had to return home from Qatar because of the tragedy.

It’s a sad and harrowing story and yet again, we have allowed it to happen in this country that prides itself as the only Christian nation in Asia. How disturbing indeed that our children, our hope and our future, are dying at the hands of authorities supposedly mandated to keep this country’s citizens safe. Some of us were even more enraged over a drag artist’s performance than the murder of a 17-year-old boy.

Our rage has become so misplaced and we rarely demand accountability when it should matter most.

Regular police operations

Let us refuse to accept and normalize the deaths of our fellow Filipinos at the hands of our police forces. This isn’t how it should be.

Navotas City cops involved in the shooting incident must be held accountable for what happened. It is not enough to remove them from their posts.

As the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) said, the police acted with intent to kill. “Enough facts exist to support an indictment for murder, not mere reckless imprudence resulting in homicide,” it added.

We need to bring to justice those responsible for what happened to Baltazar because it is the only way to end this culture of police brutality, carelessness and impunity and, more importantly, the lack of accountability in this country.

Duterte’s bloody drug war worsened the situation because it has enabled this culture among the police and perhaps even in the military.

The public must demand accountability because while this seems like a police problem that is too far from our mundane lives, we never really know; Rodaliza Baltazar, 7,300 kilometers away from the Philippines, for one, did not expect to come home to find her son dead.

Corruption

The more we tolerate such ills in our society, the more these wrongdoings will continue. The same is true with corruption.

As Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong has pointed out, corruption, it seems, has become the norm in this country.

Many of us might know by now how Mayor Magalong last month put the spotlight on corruption in this country.

He lamented the proposal to have military and uniformed personnel contribute to their pension when no legislators expressed willingness to give up or even admit that they still have pork barrel.

Against this backdrop, the mayor said, the country’s soaring debt, which is now at P14.10 trillion as of end May, continues to soar.

Said the no-nonsense Mayor Magalong:

“In seven years, our national debt increased by as much as 142 percent. We’re now at P13.86 trillion. In short, we are already above the 60 percent debt-to-GDP ratio.

“Ang ibig sabihin niyan, each and every Filipino kapapanganak pa lang may utang na na P113,000.

“Our ability to pay our debt would depend on our ability to manage our financial leakages.

“No less than the former secretary of NEDA said, ang final leakage (refers to) a big chunk that goes to corruption...

“Are we not going to ask ourselves, is corruption now becoming a norm in government? Is good governance becoming an exception?

“It is very saddening that they have a percentage in every project. They have not yet become tired. They already have a percentage. They are still the contractor. They are still the supplier.”
Thank you, Mayor Magalong, for speaking out. I am not surprised that lawmakers like Rep. Rodante Marcoleta were quick to raise a howl about it. Those who benefit from such a broken system will surely do everything to keep it that way.

Raising hell

But the right thing to do is to support Mayor Magalong in this crusade. Indeed, we must raise hell against wrongdoing and the ills that destroy our society. Let us be comfortable in seeking accountability, in seeking the truth and in bringing perpetrators to justice.

Part of the problem is that Filipinos aren’t comfortable, or simply not used to seeing powerful people go to court or go to jail.

Instead, we find comfort in hobnobbing with those in power, never mind that some of them have yet to answer to wrongdoings they may have committed in the past.

For me, it’s not so much about holding a fashion show while a lot of people are trying to survive. It’s really about how blinded we have become as soon as the klieg lights are on. In the process, wittingly or unwittingly, we end up enabling some of those in power to get away with their sins.

Just look at our lawmakers now – there’s an ex-con, an ex-plunderer and ex-election cheats. The statesmen of decades past must be turning in their graves.

But hope is eternal; we find glimmers of hope in public servants like Mayor Magalong. Let us support the good men in our country today and raise hell on those who commit wrongdoings, including the murder of a 17-year old.

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Email: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.