As expected, the usual suspects are taking the top-management cue and mounting a massive online quibble over the contents of a bunch of name-and-shame lists, purportedly of members of Congress who’ve had “dealings” with alleged pork barrel scam ringleader Janet Lim Napoles, floating around. What exactly will these lists prove? Nothing really. What is at stake here, it seems, is who will be the first to the scoop.
Online and bricks-and-mortar “activism” has always been about fuelling lynch mobs. Because Philippine Congress consists of popularly-elected officials, the presumed thinking out there (if credit is due these “activists”) is that if a list of Congress people associated with Napoles is published, the voters would think twice about re-electing them or, as preferred by not a few, pressure them into stepping down from office.
Really now, we should really be re-thinking all that. In a society where rapists, plunderers, rebel leaders, idiots, winos, and, yes, thieves repeatedly get re-elected to office, I wouldn’t put much faith in that prospect. What exactly will a public shaming of senators and House representatives achieve? The list of such bozos who’ve been shamed many times yet got re-elected is a lot longer than any list Napoles could come up with.
| SUPPORT INDEPENDENT SOCIAL COMMENTARY! Subscribe to our Substack community GRP Insider to receive by email our in-depth free weekly newsletter. Opt into a paid subscription and you'll get premium insider briefs and insights from us. Subscribe to our Substack newsletter, GRP Insider! Learn more |
Fact is, evidence of pork thievery has been staring Filipinos in the face and festering under their noses for decades. Filipinos have, essentially, been living in a bad neighbourhood and keeping their doors unlocked — even wide open — all that time knowing all this. Worse, they’ve been hiring the very thieves who’ve been stealing them blind to patrol their neighbourhoods.
Who’s the real idiot here?
Oh pardon moi, in the Philippines, there are no idiots. Only victims.
If we are to believe all these “thought leaders” making a big hoo-ha about all the usual wrong arguments, Ms Napoles and the wad of Napoles Lists she’s thrown to the birdbrains to feast on constitute the biggest breakthrough in the nation’s collective efforts to rid itself of pork barrel thievery.
I beg to differ.
Fraud involving public funds is one of the easiest crimes to investigate and prosecute. It is a walk in the park. Where there is a paper trail leading to fraud, you win. Where there is no paper trail, you win as well. The principle is quite simple:
Senators and House representatives who are custodians of pork barrel funds are accountable for how they are disbursed.
It’s a two-part principle:
(1) Fraudulently disburse them, you go to jail.
(2) Lose control of or even just misplace these funds, guess what: you still go to jail.
Any bank teller or checkout chick will understand those simple tenets of funds management.
To put pork thieves in jail, we don’t need Napoles nor any lists being grandstanded today by a president, an ex police chief, a Secretary of “justice”, and a mob of Twitter “hashtag activists”. We just need good auditors, good police officers, and honst-to-goodness prosecutors who are on the people’s side. Unfortunately for Filipinos, history has proven that none such exist in the Philippines. What we do have are lots of bozos who want to be president, and many more who want to be senators and congressmen. Why? Because there will always be lots of pork to feast on — and lots of idiotic voters who will elect them into office.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
This is a culture of impunity. The man on the street cares more about the verdict on American Idol when an American citizen beats another American citizen who they viewed as “pinoy”. The type of pinoy that has never been to the Philippines. Yet visible public officials are idolized for evading arrest, causing international incidents, violating the chain of command, funneling public funds to their private companies, maintaining several mistresses on their government salary the list goes on and on. You talk about needing good officials etc. There are none because this myopic society does not value or demand quality. They demand and value baduy and boy do we get that. PROUD TO BE PINOY!!!
@ Gogs, U R CORRECT AGAIN SIR. Its so sad, but true.
You and I see what is there and tell it like it is. Not sure why that can be branded as cynical or negative. It is what is there and is in perpetual motion.
It never ceases to amaze me how a society such as ours would persistently root for the devil’s puppet if not the devil himself, and yet refer to their unenlightened choice as the “Will of God”. Considering the depths of perversion Pinoy society has plunged itself into, I wonder if it could ever be redeemed.
From the Manila Times… The napoles sting:
http://www.manilatimes.net/the-napoles-affair-from-scam-to-sting/96082/
I know what we can all do. We can have another EDSA!
Don’t you lot think that it’s a great idea? We march once again to EDSA shrine and hold court over the people on the lists and even those not on it. We deliver swift and possibly illegal justice.
It is, after all, our answer to most things political that we don’t agree with!
Tara na mga dudes, pares, chongs~! Time for yet another EDSA! I-pre-emptive strike na natin ang legislative and judicial government bodies! Unahan na natin ang desisyon nila!
Why don’t we just kill them? That’s easier, no? They had it coming, anyway…
What is happening to the country is terrible indeed. Only in the Philippines can one see the most guilty being used as state witnesses! We are being taken for a ride! When will you wake up Filipino People?
There were those lists of crooks and thieves in previous years…presented to the same Senate. I have never seen people in such lists go to jail.
Instead, they built political family dynasties…re-elected time and time again…this is just a waste of time..
There is an entire class of people in the Faili-ppines that needs to be taught a lesson.A SWIFT AND SEVERE LESSON THAT CAN NEVER BE MISTAKEN FOR ANYTHING BUT A STERN LESSON.
Yes, the time has come for some serius teaching of harsh lesson’s.