Courtesy resignation for all corrupt, useless politicians

“The government is so out of control. It is so bloated and infested with fraud and deceit and corruption and abuse of power.”

— Ted Nugent

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

WHY only ask the high-ranking Philippine National Police (PNP) officials to tender their “courtesy” resignation? 

The police organization isn’t the only rotten agency in the Philippine government. 

Why not include or begin from the most dangerous characters in our society: the corrupt, inept, negligent, avaricious, and useless politicians—both elected and appointed?

There is no distinction between the hoodlums in police uniform and the crocodiles wearing the Barong Tagalog or coat and tie and holding offices in the City Hall, Capitol, House of Representatives, Senate, and all other “lucrative” government offices where deceit and plunder are massive, overwhelming and unstoppable since time since immemorial;  and the practice of graft and corruption appears to be no solution in sight and nothing can be done to curve and totally stop it.

They are all shame, scandal and menace to society. They are responsible for the Filipinos’ state of economic despair and gradual low quality of life; they contribute heavily to the culture of rapaciousness in the Philippines.

Look at the pack of wolves who become instant millionaires and even billionaires by using their positions and connections to amass unexplained wealth while in public office. There are many ways for them to get instant rich while in power. 

In fact, it would be kind of us to ask for their courtesy resignation. In the first place, there’s no courtesy in what they have been doing. The word courtesy is a slap on our faces if we want to get rid of them.

Stealing the people’s money and waltzing with criminal elements make them the most discourteous and insolent characters in our society.

The Philippines is better off if these rapscallions are banished from our sight right away.

 

-o0o-

 

On January 10, 2012, or 11 year ago, we were among a small group of Filipinos invited in one of the most important events in the history of Philippine banking overseas. 

It involved a corporate bank from the Philippines which “expanded” in British Columbia in Canada to serve the Filipino clients.

In a conference held at the River Rock Hotel in the City of Richmond, executives of the UnionBank of the Philippines led by then President and Chief Operating Officer Victor B. Valdepenas and Executive Vice President Genaro V. Lapez introduced their policies and mission before leaders of the Filipino-Canadian community as they reiterated the bank's corporate vision and achievements in information technology.

As "enabler of the customers investment needs in the Philippines," they bank was prepared to assist on entrepreneurship opportunities, financial advise, and safe and reliable payments for beneficiaries or Philippine companies and organizations, according to Lapez.

Then the seventh largest private domestic universal bank in the Philippines, UnionBank had assets of P253 billion, deposits of P192 billion, and capital of P36 billion.

The bank provided for their Canada based Filipino clients a wide range of commercial, retail and corporate banking products and services, including loan and deposit products, cash management services, credit and debit cards, treasury activities, and electronic banking.

According to Valdepenas, who was seated on our right side together with then Philippine Consul General in Vancouver Jose Ampeso, Aboitiz Equity Ventures or Aboitiz was the major shareholders among owner stakeholders with 43.3 percent shareholdings as of September 2011. Aboitiz was one of the largest conglomerates with interests in power generation and distribution, banking and finance, transportation and food followed by the Social Security System (SSS) with 21.5 percent shareholdings as of September 2011. 

The state agency managed the pension/social security fund of workers in private sector, wage earners as well as the self-employed.

Insular Life Assurance Company was third largest shareholder with 16.1 percent shareholdings as of September 2011. 

It was reportedly the Philippines' leading and largest Filipino life insurance company with asset base of P72 billion as of 2010.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)

 

 

 

 

Lunatics in government

“Time will inevitably uncover dishonesty and lies; history has no place for them.”

—Norodom Sihanouk

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

IF the voters and the appointing authorities in government aren’t careful, we will continue to have lunatics in government service. 

Taxpayers’ money will be wasted for their salaries, pelfs and privileges.

Lunatics are mentally ill persons. 

Instead of electing or appointing them, they should be sent to the mental institutions where they can be rehabilitated and prevented from assimilating with the public.

But, sad to say, there were lunatics who got elected during the elections; “normal” public officials who are beholden politically, appoint psychotics even to important government positions. That’s why damu buang.

Unlike in the police and military, there are no psychological evaluations before one is appointed or elected in government positions. 

The electoral system itself is the No. 1 recruiter of sira ulo. The election commission allows them to file their certificates of candidacy (COC), thus some of them managed to win after “entertaining” and tantalizing the gullible voters.

When these insane characters land in high government offices, they don’t only make scandalous decisions, they also endanger the lives of the people—their prolonged stay in public offices is downright inimical to the interest of the public, nay the entire nation if they occupy national positions.

 

-o0o-

 

They are everywhere: from the executive to the legislative and even the judiciary. Not all governors, mayors, village and youth federation chiefs elected in a “fair and honest” electoral process have normal minds. 

Not all congressmen and senators are fit mentally. 

Not all judges from the trial to the higher courts think and behave normally.

When a public servant steals from the taxpayers, what kind of a person he or she is? Stealing is bad, illegal, immoral—a terrible act of dishonesty, yet many public officials continue to steal—and get away with their chicanery and skullduggery.

If caught with their hands in the cookie jars and exposed in the media, some of them still have the temerity to be outraged; they cry “persecution” and take the criticism, or the expose about their shenanigans personally. 

What kind of persons are they? Only the lunatics will react like that.

Normal persons don’t steal. Normal public servants don’t attempt to enrich themselves at the expense of every hard-working Juan dela Cruz who religiously pays taxes.

Normal public servants criticized in the media for malfeasance and irregularity are ashamed. Some of them resign immediately. In Japan, they commit hara kiri. Money is nothing if their honor has been besmirched.

In the Philippines, corrupt public officials, despite mounting pieces of evidence leveled against them, cry foul and drag the journalists who expose their dishonesty and incompetence in court. Fine. It’s part of due process, but, as balat sibuyas or onion-skinned, what kind of persons are they?

 

-o0o-

 

In most horrifying cases, they hire killers to muzzle the press and silence media people who are only doing their job. What kind of mentality do they have?

Hard-hitting but credible broadcaster Percy Lapid, 63, was murdered by hired killers on October 3, 2022 in Las Pinas City, Metro Manila because he was effective, he told the truth and made many corrupt people in government angry. 

The masterminds, probably abusive and perhaps plunderers, couldn’t take Lapid’s criticisms; they were afraid of truth. Lapid’s series of expose against graft and corruption and abuse of power and authority were actually valid and justified in a democratic country.

The role of the critical press in a free country should be adversarial. Percy Lapid was adversarial, erudite, fair and very professional.

Press people aren’t supposed to praise officials in government—unless they performed extra-ordinary tasks that really deserved some kudos and applause.

When they get mad after stealing the people’s money and murdering the purveyors of truth, what kind of human beings are they?

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed) 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

  

 

Resign who?

"Happy is the man who can make a living by his hobby!"

--Higgins, Act I

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

THE issue isn’t whether there is graft and corruption in government.

It is how much money has been stolen from the coffer. 

There is no more argument that taxpayers’ money has been—and is being—pocketed by crooks in government.

Graft and corruption has been a permanent stain in any government anywhere in the world. 

Especially in the Philippines where it has become a cottage industry.

Thus the threat of Senator Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao “to resign from the senate if there is no graft and corruption” isn’t earthshaking and no bearing whatsoever in the furor involving the alleged missing billions of pesos from either mismanagement or grand thievery unfolding while the world is fighting the COVID-19.

Given the magnitude of alleged graft and corruption in key government agencies with or without the pandemic, Pacquiao’s senate post is safe in the harbor and his “threat” to resign will never stir a hornet’s nest.

He should have said: “I will resign if no Duterte minion is involved in graft and corruption.”

That could have been more spunky and audacious. 

Like a KO punch.

 

-o0o-

 

IT’s all over the news as of this writing that Great Britain’s Andy Murray, a three-time grand slam champion, announced he "lost respect" for world No. 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas, after the Greek took multiple extended breaks at crucial times during their first round US Open match.

I missed that match in the stadium August 30 as it was featured late in the evening. 

The two top players in the world reportedly battled it out for more than four-and-a-half hours in a five-set thriller, with Tsitsipas eventually prevailing 2-6 7-6 3-6 6-3 6-4 to advance to the second round at Flushing Meadows.

Murray was reportedly disappointed with how much time his opponent spent off court; Tsitsipas took two bathroom breaks of longer than seven minutes and also received a medical time out.

"It's just disappointing because I feel it influenced the outcome of the match," Murray told reports after the match. "I'm not saying I necessarily win that match, for sure, but it had influence on what was happening after those breaks.”

We often saw players getting upset and proceeding to throw their toys out of their prams in the past especially when they lost important matches.

Most of them refused to hold back when angry and terribly disappointed despite the world looking on “live.”

This episode certainly doesn’t look good for the sport, and it provides some entertainment and amusement depending on how the fans will appreciate it.

 

-o0o-

 

Another interesting book on sale (only at $5) recently at the Barnes and Noble here in NYC is Pygmalion, a king of Cyprus who could find nothing good in women.

As a result, he resolved to live out his life unmarried. 

Pygmalion fell in love with his own creation when he carved a statue out of ivory that was so beautiful and so perfect that no living being could possibly be its equal. 

At a festival, he consequently prayed to the goddess of love, Aphrodite, that he might have the statue come to life. 

To his amazement, Pygmalion found that his wish had been fulfilled when he reached home, and he proceeded to marry the statue he named Galatea.

Author George Bernard Shaw used several aspects of the legend and most prominently one of the names in the title, viewers, writers, critics, and audiences have consistently insisted upon there being some truth attached to every analogy in the myth.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)

 

Crooks, Inc.

“Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.”
--Thomas Jefferson

By Alex P. Vidal

IT seems so many anomalies and scandals are being committed in the government by dishonest, incompetent, and insincere public officials nowadays, and yet these anomalies and scandals were hardly unraveled or thoroughly discussed in public.
In most cases, the culprits were able to avoid prosecution by just tendering their resignation or by publicly professing “loyalty” to the administration and “admiration” to the president.
Once they have resigned, no effort was made to hold them accountable for the thievery they have committed while in office.
They have mastered the steal-now-disappear-later technique of amassing wealth at the expense of the taxpayers.
Once they have shown canine loyalty to the big boss, no one can touch them with a ten-foot pole; and chances are, they will be exonerated prematurely and even hailed and defended like Caesar’s wife.
The devils grow in number because Lucifer not only tolerates their shenanigans, but also protects them like endangered species.

-o0o-

There were cases when, instead of filing appropriate criminal cases against them, these good-for-nothing officials were only transferred to other offices, where they could continue their stealing binge like Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.
This is the reason why the government continues to decay and deteriorate; it’s a free-for-all for the vultures. Everybody happy; everyone is feasting on the bones.
Rascals and rapscallions are having a field day emptying the cookie jars, dancing and prancing like descendants of Limahong.
Crooks in public office recycle the machinery of graft and corruption in a massive scale using the same system that had impoverished the Filipinos in the past.
They are everywhere: in sports (look how they ravish the SEA Games funds), in the PNP and AFP, in agriculture, in irrigation, in public works, in education, in tax collection, in jail management, in labor, in war-torn Marawi, in customs, among other departments.

-o0o-

ANOTHER reason why no big time grafter has been caught and punished in this administration, so far, is because of the apparent dearth of Benjamins or independent but intrepid whistle-blowers in the legislative branch that should be playing the role of fiscalizers and watchdogs in the name of check and balance.
Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Raul Roco, Teofisto Guingona, Blas Ople are gone.
Rene Saguisag and Francisco Tatad are no longer active in politics.
What we have now are a bunch of clowns, dullards, and third-rate Halloween characters who got elected for being popular, notorious jokers, killers, and womanizers courtesy of a decrepit electoral system responsible for the mass recruitment of idiots in the august halls.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

‘How can I win against the media people?’

“It's not opinion polls that determine the outcome of elections, it's votes in ballot boxes.”
-- Nicola Sturgeon

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- An Ilonggo architect who lost five times in as many attempts in the race for city councilor once ribbed members of the Fourth Estate in Iloilo City in the Philippines “for not doing your homework.”
Salvador “Jun” Tavarro, Jr. said if reporters were only diligent and sharp in doing investigative reporting, “there would be dozens of public officials hauled off to court for graft and corruption every week.”
He pointed to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) as “the No. 1 source of graft and corruption in the country.”
Tavarro, an urban planner, also rebuked the Bureau of Customs, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, and the Armed Forces of the Philippines as “among the most corrupt agencies”.
A part-time instructor in the University of San Agustin, Tavarro exhorted members of the press to study engineering and law.
“Even if you are the best investigative reporter (he was referring to a radio anchorman who blasted him for being a “nuisance” candidate) in your station, you are useless if all you can do is go to the DPWH and interview contractors with ax to grind against the regional director and other department heads.”

-o0o-

Tavarro lamented that many reporters “missed” the opportunity to “hit it big” (expose) because “they don’t understand the engineering terminologies and how the road and infrastructure projects are manipulated by corrupt DPWH officials.”
Millions of taxpayers’ money are being wasted and pocketed by grafters in government because they know how to manipulate public works projects and the public bidding; they know the language in the system; they are familiar and experts in the technicalities and the ins and outs of certain projects, thus they find it easy to confuse the public “while the so-called investigative reporters only interview employees and disgruntled bidders, review and xerox bundles of documents that mostly they don’t understand,” bemoaned the Ilonggo architect.
Graft and corruption in the DPWH, among other agencies, starts in the public bidding process, he said.
The words “ten percent” or sometimes “fifteen percent” are reportedly “normal bywords” and are part of the SOP (standard operating procedure) in graft-ridden government agencies.

-o0o-

“It’s impossible to curb graft and corruption with the kind of system we have. Many grafters in government are getting rich while some infrastructure projects suffer from sub-standard materials and sub-standard implementation,” said Tavarro.
“That’s why members of the press must walk an extra mile by studying the technical terms in every government agency that they cover so they can easily spot the anomalies.”
If a reporter is assigned by his editor or station manager to cover the Hall of Justice beat, for instance, Tavarro stressed, “it is imperative that he knows some legal terms and how the cases are filed in court; and why the accused sometimes face the People of the Philippines in a criminal case.”
Had Tavarro won in all his failed struggles to be elected in the local elections, he would pass a resolution, he said, asking government agencies to explain in simple terms--or in words to be understood by ordinary taxpayers--how government projects are undertaken from start to finish.
Anyone in the hearing distance could understand Tavarro’s sentiments, but they also noticed strikingly that he was apparently concealing a “hard feeling” toward some “more popular” radiomen who ran and won for the same position in every election, thus preventing him from landing in the “Magic 12.”
“I am probably the most qualified candidate in Iloilo City. No one can question my competence and educational background. But, how can I win against (the more popular) the media people?” Tavarro, who always ran as independent, sobbed.