Crime and punishment

“Where the country is poor, stealing the people’s money is the worst crime of all.”

 Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is besieged with various cases of graft and corruption now that she no longer enjoys the privilege of immunity from suit.As usual, those noisy “progressives” beat each other in filing cases after cases even if they knew they have no solid evidence in their possession.Their naiveté to the legal system is dangerous because the case they filed in court will be used by the legal counsel of the accused in its defense knowing that the cases filed by them are weak.These “progressives” unwittingly played into the hands of those they wanted sent to jail all because of their over-eagerness and hunger for publicity.

 Why is it that graft and corruption continue to rear its ugly head despite the massive campaign to eradicate or curb it?

 The foremost reason is that we are fond of going to the media first to accuse a public official of graft and corruption without first collecting solid evidence to pin the alleged culprit down.For days or weeks the accuser or whistleblower will enjoy free media limelight while the accused is subjected to trial by publicity that affects not only his person but also his family.But after the issue has died down, what?The accuser does not file a case in court because he knows he lacks the evidence for his case to prosper.The accused, on the other hand, can only cry in silence because his reputation is damaged beyond repair.

 Secondly, our justice system is so complicated and cumbersome that it takes years, if ever, to convict a person accused of graft and corruption despite overwhelming evidence against him.Ours too is a compartmentalized justice system – one for the rich and one for the poor.A poor public employee can easily be dismissed from the service for taking a P100 bribe money whereas, it takes eternity, if ever, to convict a public official stealing millions or billions of pesos from the government coffers.

 The third reason is that the whole bureaucracy is riddled with too many loopholes that officials and employees are always tempted to commit graft and corruption because the opportunities are always present.Then there is the people’s perception that it is better to bribe a personnel to speed up the processing of the transaction than to follow the tedious normal process which takes a longer time.There is also a notion that in the government service graft and corruption is the rule rather than the exception.

 There are various laws against graft band corruption in the bureaucracy.Among these are:the administrative code of 1987 for public officials and employees, the Revised Penal Code, the anti-money laundering act, laws against plunder, etc.The government agencies implementing these are: the Civil Service Commission, Office of the Ombudsman, Commission on Audit, and the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission, among others.There are even task force and non-government organizations tasked to watch over the government.But seldom does a corrupt official or employee convicted and punished.The simple reason is that despite these laws there are so many loopholes in the implementation where offenders could easily take advantage of and their cases dismissed.

 Although the Aquino administration is on the right track in going after the plunderers of the previous administration, it must have the political will to pursue the case to its just conclusion regardless of how the legal counsel of the accused will try to delay or scuttle the legal proceedings.The momentum is on its side so it should not waver in its legal battle against a corrupt public official who stole billions of pesos, a staggering amount more than enough to buy justice for her acquittal or even finance a destabilization campaign against the sitting government.

 Even the resurgence of whistleblowers pointing their accusing fingers to a wily chihuahua, there is still room for doubt that the cases, filed by persons who have neither access nor in a possession of valid evidences, will ever prosper and lead to conviction.The ball is round as they used to say.For the rich and powerful in this country, there is no such thing as crime and punishment.

 Rene F. Antiga

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