“When a person go to jail, what people don't realize is you're alive, but you're dead to the world. People forget about you. When you go to jail, you're a story.”
—Roddy Ricch
By Alex P. Vidal
NOTHING can be worse than being tormented by the thought that before Christmas Day, someone will spend time inside the jail.
For several weeks now, this brutal threat by the government against perpetrators of the infuriating flood control project uproar has become their excruciating Sword of Damocles.
To be compulsorily taken away from family during the “most wonderful time of the year”is already a terrible mental and emotional anguish.
To be separated from family and brought behind bars in cuff during the Yuletide season, including New Year, without knowing whether someone can go home soon is adding insult to injury and agony.
Definitely there will be no homecoming in sight yet for many of those involved who face imminent arrest in the mess if they are slapped with malversation of public funds, a non-bailable offense, aside from plunder.
This was what the Department of Justice (DoJ), the Office of the Ombudsman, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), and the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI), including President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. had promised the Filipino people.
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Many of the accused (they remain “suspects” until formal charges have been filed against them in the Sandiganbayan) may have started spending some sleepless nights; their families may have been worrying a lot like they are about to witness a funeral of loved ones.
But this is the price they have to pay. Justice and accountability have to be served regardless of who gets waylaid. It’s long overdue.
The taxpayers, including those who lost family members in the most recent floods when successive super typhoons ripped apart the peninsula and dry lands, have been waiting for moment where those responsible for stealing billions of pesos in flood control projects that resulted in horrific destruction and death are locked in the calaboose.
We also worry for family members of those who will be locked in jail in relation to the flood control project hullabaloo since most of them will have to suffer the stigma of shame and humiliation in public even if they have nothing to do whatsoever with the crime, but we are more worried if justice will elude the taxpayers—the Filipino people for that matter—if the flood control project thieves are allowed to get away with murder.
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The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is aware of what is happening in the Philippines nowadays.
Uncle Sam knows there are malcontents and destabilizers agitating to topple the Marcos Jr. administration with the support of China.
Even the most recent protest rally called by the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) against corruption in government, Uncle Sam monitored and observed every move and speech delivered by haters and saboteurs of the three-year-old Marcos Jr. regime.
Sources said the INC hierarchy decided to shorten the supposed to be three-day protest rally at the Luneta in Manila after being “advised” by Big Brother.
This was after an unhinged presidential sister started to fiercely attack the president, her own younger brother, south of the border.
For Big Brother, it was a tipping point. INC had to oblige to the bigger voice.
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BLOOD IN SEMEN. One in 100 men experience this condition known as "hematospermia", and it's usually nothing to worry about as it's a routine plumbing problem. Ejaculating at least once a week improves our urologic health, decreasing the chances of prostate cancer and hematospermia. (Source: Dr. Judd Moul, Duke University Medical Center)
GOOD SEX EDUCATION is safe sex education. Helping kids to be aware of their bodies and of their feelings about sexuality can only make them better able to practice safe and egalitarian sex in what could be history's most honest chapter of sexual relations.
Charles Dickens once said, “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” We say, “With or without Christmas, we should live a decent life; love our friends and don't hate our enemies. Respect for our parents should be inviolable. Kindness should be our mantra. Most of all, our faith in God should be unshakable!
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OUR BONES. There are 206 bones in the adult human body, but 300 in children (some of the bones fuse together as a child grows).
The Roman Emperor Nero used to dress up young boys in his dead wife's clothes and make love to them.
WHAT IS THE SECRET BEHIND A SUCCESSFUL RELATIONSHIP? 91 percent of those surveyed said it was still finding your partner attractive after being together for several years. If I may add, being "attractive" does not mean only physically. We can be attractive because of our values, intelligence, and the way we treat others, especially the lowly people.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)
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