Terrified!

Why do our state witnesses always seem worried to speak the truth? Have we grown to become cowards? Or are we terrified?

I think more Pinoys are terrified to speak up. They are worried that if they speak up, everything they say may boomerang back to them. They may lose their jobs, be silenced or even killed. So instead of speaking the truth or questioning what is right from wrong, they tend to keep mum about things.

Many government workers have witnessed corruption within the walls of their agencies but they choose to keep quiet. They don’t question neither do they offer their opinion or fight to achieve justice. They just go with the flow and allow the “termites” of public office to gnaw down the walls of their departments. Why is this so? It is because we are weak. We are afraid to speak the truth and suffer consequences that may shake our world.

It is about time that government workers protect their own offices from outside forces. These forces usually come along with the newly installed head of the department or section. And this new “boss” who wants to put an imprint of his leadership will tend to break existing structures, thus, nothing is ever done. This is reason why we are still where we are 30 years ago – down in the pit. While our neighboring countries are going up, we are going down. The system is caput. The President must work harder. He must work double time.

We need to realize that it is not wrong to question. Let us not make the “bullies” in public office drag us down. We must continue to fight for our right without question or doubt. We must continue to protect our country!

We don’t really know whether those in power if they choose to commit fraud, will be able to get away with tactics only hooligans can think of. Unless they relent and swerve from this disappointing course, they will probably succeed for the moment. But history – as has been demonstrated hundreds of times will revile those who committed such foul deeds.

What do you think of the President’s priorities these days? These are not normal times. There is a looming Constitutional crisis if this much publicized impeachment trial will not be done properly and according to the laws set by the Constitution. We have an ill-prepared prosecution, a defense full of braggadocio in their manner of refuting the allegations and witnesses who continue to lie. Sanamagan! Where is the end of all these?

My dad once noted that, “Lawyers frequently seem to be the defenders of the ungodly, instead”. He said that, “In the Philippines, the legal profession, which started out in the past generation as a noble, idealistic calling, appears to have deteriorated into a kind of “Moral Kombat” or game of wits in which participants sell their “expertise” like some store-shelf commodity and thus contribute to clogged court dockets, undue delay in the administration of justice, and corruption in the prosecution and judicial services. When a country has 45,000 heat-seeking lawyers, they compete to create “trouble” so they can have more business.” And this is what we are seeing now in television - not just in the impeachment trial but also in other news. Money talks!

The latest fad for our politicians including the chief justice is to get a spokesperson. In Corona’s case, he has a budget for two. These eloquent and seemingly scheming personalities have planted impressions in a confused public’s mind. I must say that the prosecution has not been handling the sticky and malicious situations presented each day of the trial well enough. They have not mustered legal arguments to refute allegations of the defense or the senator judges for that matter.

Anyway, Corona seems to have a big budget for this trial. He must really want the job badly! I wonder now why he cannot just follow what Germany’s President Christian Wulff has done following a series of scandals that prompted calls for him to stand down. Wulff had put the interest of the general public to the fore in deciding to resign. In a statement he issued in a television interview, he said, “Germany needs a president who can devote himself completely to national and international challenges and one who commands the trust of a wide majority of citizens. The developments of the past days and weeks have shown that this trust and therefore confidence in my ability to serve have been adversely affected.”

The scandal involved alleged political favors and financial impropriety while he was state premier of Lower Saxony. With his resignation, President Wulff reiterated his conviction that he always behaved legally correctly in office and in service to the people of his country. He also expressed utmost respect for the position he held.

US President Richard Nixon resigned from office in 1974 in the face of impeachment by the United States House of Representatives and conviction by the Senate for the Watergate scandal.

Recently in Korea, Choi See-joong, chairman of the government-run Korea Communications Commission stepped down from office after his aide was arrested on charges of illicitly receiving money from an operator of a local broadcasting school. That’s what you call delicadeza!

Good governance has been a perennial problem worldwide. It has been so hard to address it because history has shown that world leaders themselves cannot hold on to their conviction and ideals of becoming good leaders. We have leaders who rose to power but eventually lost it to the disintegration of their commitment to serve their countrymen.

Such is the case of our government officials. Personal interests always come first before fulfilling what they have promised the people during the campaign period. These so-called ‘good choices’ usually end up as no different from the corrupt officials who have been holding steadfast to their positions for so many years, not wanting to give up for obvious reasons.

As for P-Noy, until he puts to rest the perception that his desire to impeach Corona has something to do with Hacienda Luisita, he will continue to be seen either as a ‘wimp’ or a ‘dictator’.

Any reaction from him whether good or bad on issues affecting his presidency will always mirror the kind of person he is. Perhaps he should just do his work, talk about his plans to build this country and stop reacting to criticisms. He should restrain himself from getting into a catfight. I know this expression is used for women who scratch and slap each other but the President and Corona have gotten into such a “situation” again. Imagine the very two people with the highest positions in the land are bedeviling each other. Susmariosep!