No graft case vs Iloilo’s ‘Roderick Paulate’

“Anyone in a position of power is either corrupt or assumed to be corrupt, and the assumption of corruption is as bad as the reality of it.”
--Stanley A. McChrystal

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- All over the Philippines, it’s not only Quezon City Councilor Roderick Paulate who is allegedly guilty of hiring “ghost employees” and pocketing their salaries.
Paulate and his driver and liaison officer Vicente Bajamunde, accused of pocketing salaries of “ghost employees” amounting to P1.109 million, have been formally charged by the Office of the Ombudsman.
They have posted a bail for their temporary liberty.
But there were “Roderick Paulates” in other cities and provinces in the Philippines who have not been indicted in court.
Either the cases against them were weak or their accusers have failed to produce substantial pieces of evidence to pin them down.
Or they decided to chicken out for fear of reprisal or lack of will and determination to pursue the truth and seek justice.
Some of them, after realizing they have no chance to wiggle out from the mess, decided not to run for reelection or opted to fly the coop.

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There was a sensational case in 2006 involving an Iloilo city councilor caught unprepared during a radio interview and admitted hiring a certain couple as “laborers.”
Unknown to the city councilor, reporters had already checked with the Sangguniang Panlungsod and discovered the couple she mentioned didn’t have the job orders.
To compound the matter, the couple personally complained to media their names were included in city councilor’s legislative payroll for October 1-15 indicating they each received P2,200.
They never received a single centavo, the couple protested.
They also denied they were the city councilor’s employees.
No case has been filed against the city councilor but the city councilor decided not to seek for reelection in the following year's local elections.
The city councilor, highly respected in the community and with excellent track record in the business sector, cried political harassment.
Since the accusers failed to file a formal case against the city councilor other than “besmirching” the city councilor’s reputation, most of the city councilor’s supporters believed the issue leveled against the city councilor was indeed politically motivated.
The city councilor’s detractors, however, believed otherwise.

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Also, nobody has been indicted in the alleged discovery of several “ghost employees” in the Iloilo City task force against illegal parking created in 2014.
It may be recalled that Councilor Plaridel Nava of the city's transportation committee disclosed that under the supplemental budget, P212,000 had been allocated for the creation of a task force against illegal parking.
The councilor estimated at least 100 city employees were probably fictitious.
In this controversy, nobody was named as culprit and charged in the Office of the Ombudsman like Paulate.

Alan loses credibility

“A constructive approach to diplomacy doesn't mean relinquishing one's rights. It means engaging with one's counterparts, on the basis of equal footing and mutual respect, to address shared concerns and achieve shared objectives.” 

--Hassan Rouhani

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- If he still has a delicadeza left in him, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano should have resigned immediately when news broke out that the Kuwaiti Government has expelled Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait Renato Pedro Villa.
Villa has been declared as persona non grata after Kuwait learned that several distressed Filipino OFWs were rescued from their employers with the help of the Philippine Embassy.
Kuwait’s harsh decision against Villa came after Cayetano, a politician before becoming a diplomat, apologized to Kuwaiti Ambassador Saleh Ahmad Althwaikh that the Philippine government had to take action upon receiving requests for help from distressed Filipino workers.
Villa was ordered kicked out after the Kuwaiti ambassador had a meeting with President Rodrigo R. Duterte in Davao City on April 22.

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In other words, Kuwait did not accept Cayetano’s lullaby.
The tiny but oil-rich Middle East country didn’t take the Philippines’ foreign affairs boss seriously.
If a sincere apology from a foreign affairs chief of one nation over a sensitive matter has been ignored and bypassed, either that foreign affairs chief has no credibility or he is a lousy chief diplomat.
Since the issue was widely reported all over the world, it gave Cayetano a king-sized embarrassment in the diplomatic community which is a big blow to his credibility.

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As expected, no serious troublemaker made a scene when Boracay was shut down on April 26.
There was no untoward incident related to the closure order.
Which made the presence of combat-ready members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) unnecessary as we wrote earlier.
Until the 11th hour, PNP and AFP bigwigs continued to downplay criticism that the presence of soldiers and cops was tantamount to a case of “overkill.”
Since the purpose of Boracay’s temporary closure for six months was “rehabilitation” or “cleaning up operation”, there was no need to militarize the hitherto most preferred tourist destination in the Philippines.

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When time beckoned for Boracay’s sunset, there was no sighting of NPA or Muslim rebels or members of cause-oriented groups sympathetic to establishment owners and local folks using ferry or speed boats from Caticlan wharf to the main island to instigate insurrection or create mayhem.
There were no armed goons hired by disgruntled resort owners and irate residents to block government representatives from implementing the presidential closure fiat.

Alex P. Vidal Quotes (Life)

You are free to give life meaning, whatever meaning you want to give it.
-- ROBERT FULGHUM :

LIFE means, 1. To exist and co-exist harmoniously; 2. To love one another; 3. To take care of our environment; 4. To be productive; 5. To serve God and obey our parents; 6. To advocate love, peace and harmony; 7. To be decent and law-abiding; 8. To respect the universal laws on human, alien and animal rights.
-- ALEX P. VIDAL

Alex P. Vidal Quotes (Listener)

It takes a great man to be a good listener.
-- CALVIN COOLIDGE :

Ordinary people aren't exempted from becoming great if they practice the art of listening and incorporate it with the art of learning. Listening will open the doors of knowledge; learning will open the gates of wisdom.
-- ALEX P. VIDAL

Alex P. Vidal Quotes (Character)

Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at.
-- GOETHE :

Laughing at a circus joker who tumbles upside down while performing acrobatics is no big deal; that’s a normal reaction. Laughing at a fat lady who rolled seven times after accidentally slipping on a banana peel means there is a need to check our GMRC.
-- ALEX P. VIDAL

Are you mentally OK, kapitan?

“Do you know the difference between neurotics and psychotics? Neurotics build castles in the sky; psychotics move into them.”
― Tanya Thompson

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Even before the start of the campaign period for the 2018 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in the Philippines, some candidates were already showing signs of mental disorder or psychopathy.
In the previous elections neuro test wasn’t required when candidates filed their certificates of candidacy (COC), so we can't expect that all winners in the May 14, 2018 elections will be sane and mentally fit.
A legislation must be pushed to empower the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to cancel or declare as null and void the victory of any barangay official--chairman, councilman or SK official--found to be unfit mentally or with serious case of neurosis.
So many cases of insanity or weird behaviors displayed by elected barangay officials have been recorded in the past.
Instead of being an asset to the smallest political unit in the country, barangay aldermen with brain damage have become thorns and liabilities.
In the early 90’s, for instance, a forlorn punong barangay or village chief in Iloilo City missed golden opportunities to serve his constituents and shine as a promising leader because he had to spend much of his time in the psychiatric ward of the Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC).

GRENADE

In one media gathering held at the RPTA Hall of the old Iloilo provincial capitol sometime in December 1992, a “deranged” village chief suddenly barged inside and threatened to throw a grenade into the crowd.
The late DYRP broadcaster Sol Genson pacified the “lunatic” and convinced him to leave the premises when everyone was adamant to talk to him.
He was boisterous and uncontrollable but eventually listened to Sol, his drinking buddy at Virgo night club.
When the late Pres. Cory Aquino appointed Rosa "Tita" Caram as OIC city mayor in April 1986, another “lunatic” village chief asked Iloilo City’s first woman local chief executive to extend the route of Dinagyang tribes to Port San Pedro "so that people of Guimaras and Negros can watch the event."
Mayor Caram, wife of former Iloilo Assemblyman Fermin “Nene” Caram, dismissed his "crazy" idea right away.
A village chief in Jaro district always brought with him a monkey in the barangay hall because the monkey had supposedly helped “inspire” him when he won in the “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” show in Manila.
He accused a barangay councilman of poisoning the monkey, who died under a mysterious circumstance.
The “lunatic” village chief reportedly wanted to bury the animal in Christ The King Cemetery in Ungka, Jaro district and wanted to use the barangay funds.
"I opposed this crazy idea of our kapitan!" shouted the suspect in the monkey's death, who came to our office at Sun Star Iloilo to report the "abuse of authority."

HELP

Former Iloilo Gov. Simplicio “Sim” Grino had to ask help from provincial tourism officer Manny Benedicto to escort a disoriented village chief back from capitol to the lunatic's municipality in Dumangas because he kept on addressing Gov. Grino as "Congressman Monfort" and for loitering inside the governor's office.
"Indi ako si Narsing (the late Iloilo 4th district Rep. Narciso Monfort). Si Sim ako. Gob Sim Grino kapila ka na gid hambalan (I am Gov. Sim Grino and I have already corrected you several times)," an impatient Grino ribbed the village chief.
"Lakat ta kap makadto ta kay Narsing (Come kapitan, we will go to Narsing)," Benedicto convinced the village chief.
It’s the most common dilemma. Because vote-buying has been rampant even in the barangay level, hoodlums and mentally deranged can be elected into office.
If a punong barangay is not a drug addict, he is a drug pusher.
If he is not engaged in selling of illegal drugs, he is engaged in illegal gambling and maintenance of prostitution dens--or in cahoots with operators of these illegal activities.
Or he is a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Let’s scrutinize our candidates carefully and vote wisely.

We’ll wake you up in October

“The thing about tourism is that the reality of a place is quite different from the mythology of it.”
-- Martin Parr

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Good night, Boracay.
Sleep well starting April 26, 2018 and allow efforts by the national government to deodorize, purify, and clean you up.
You will undergo a massive rehabilitation and a little face-lifting for six months, as promised by the Duterte administration.
You will take a unique forced “vacation leave” and will temporarily be dislodged from the radar of the world’s most preferred tourist destinations this summer.
Since business will come to a screeching halt albeit temporarily, the island’s economy will go slow, too, and is expected to have a domino effects in the Local Government Unit of Malay, Aklan and its environs.

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Activities and work forces in resorts, hotels, and restaurants will have to be dispersed for a brief moment, and the idyllic beach will be free from contamination of human wastes and sewage from commercial establishments for the time being.
Filipinos will be waiting with bated breath as the combined forces of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Tourism (DoT), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), provincial government of Aklan, municipal government of Malay, the Philippine National Police (PNP), and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) do their Herculean tasks.
Boracay, we promise to wake you up in October.

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Robert Bly’s “Waking from Sleep” can be best dedicated to Boracay’s temporary slumber:

Inside the veins there are navies setting forth,
Tiny explosions at the waterlines,
And seagulls weaving in the wind of the salty blood.
It is the morning. The country has slept the whole winter.
Window seats were covered with fur skins, the yard was full of stiff dogs, and hands that clumsily held heavy books.
Now we wake, and rise from bed, and eat breakfast!
Shouts rise from the harbor of the blood,
Mist, and masts rising, the knock of wooden tackle in the sunlight.
Now we sing, and do tiny dances on the kitchen floor.
Our whole body is like a harbor at dawn;
We know that our master has left us for the day.