Corruption: An  embarrassment to Filipinos!

While we congratulate the Philippine National Police (PNP) for getting into the bottom of the Batasan Bombing with real sleuthing, this only proves that the police can really solve crimes if they put their heart and minds to it and get support from the national government. The only problem remaining for the police is to remove those so-called “Kotong” cops who destroy the name of the police. Indeed, corruption is ruining this country. If it goes unabated, it would add to our economic ruin.

Without a doubt, the biggest bomb that exploded in our face is the big news headlined by all the major national dailies about the World Bank blocking a US$ -million loan supposedly intended for Phase  of the National Roads Improvement Management Program because of corruption. This news item apparently came out of the Wall Street Journal, and it embarrasses us Filipinos because it is most probably true!

This project supposedly involves some  kilometers of national arterial roads and bridges, including the delivery of a “comprehensive road maintenance program through a long term performance based contracts and preventive, routine and emergency maintenance and the integrity of our national roads. What is quite telling in this problem is that, it involves a Chinese State-owned construction firm, the China State Construction Engineering Co. that was allegedly involved in rigging bids and setting up a cartel for other contracts. Shades of the ZTE scam?

Surely there has to be an end to all these scams which embarrasses us as a nation. But our chorus in demanding for a stop of corruption has to be directed at the proper venue, not in the doorstep of Malacañang because Malacañang only plays lip service to the fight against corruption. We should air our grievances to the Judiciary where just like corruption, injustice also abounds. I have always maintained that injustice breeds corruption. If we get justice, corruption would disappear.

With this, it is time for us Filipinos to show our indignation and outrage that the people tasked to weed out corruption have been sitting on their butts, collecting their salaries from our tax money, yet they seem to be oblivious or unconscious of the wave of corruption permeating the air. A case in point is the famous computer scam in Lapu-Lapu City where the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas was literally given a paper trail of evidence that any neophyte Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) could easily detect to solve a crime. Yet, we’ve hit a blank wall!

Corruption continues merrily along because the corrupt and the damned know too well that justice doesn’t move at all. Worse, because they probably paid a few corrupt people in the Judiciary, there are too many cases that have been “shelved” by the Ombudsman. First, the Girls Scouts scam involving former Rep. Clavel Asas Martinez, then there’s the Lamppost Scam. I’m sure there are a hundred more celebrated cases that people have already forgotten. Again, give us justice and corruption will disappear!

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My goodness, the Kabkaban Festival is already upon us this coming weekend. How time flies indeed. To give you more information about the happenings in Carcar, my good friend, Jerry Martin Noel Alfafara, External Vice President and Public Relations Officer of the Carcar Heritage Conservation Society (CHCS) wrote me this letter:

Dear Mr. Avila: The Festival of Lights in Homage to Santa Catalina de Alexandria is on Saturday, November ,  (Bisperas) in Carcar from PM to PM. For the first time ever, as part of the solemn evening fiesta procession, we will depict scenes from Sta. Catalina’s martyrdom using four carrozas using life-sized santos. This is the CHCS’ fiesta offering to the people of Carcar and our visitors. Our goal is to propagate the devotion of our beloved patron, St. Catherine and make more people aware of her story.

The participating organizations are: The Archdiocesan Shrine of St. Catherine of Alexandria, the Parish Pastoral Council, the Carro and Icon Caretaker’s Organization of the Shrine, Saint Catherine’s College, Saint Catherine’s Alumni Association and the CHCS. For your reader’s information, there is actually a St. Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt. It is a Greek Orthodox monastery located at the foot of Mount Sinai (called “the God-Trodden Mount of Sinai” by the monks). It was built by the Eastern Roman Emperor (Byzantine) Justinian the Great circa  AD. The monastery and surrounding land are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The monastery contains relics of St. Catherine and houses the second largest collection of illuminated books and manuscripts in the world next only to the Vatican.