#OccupyBaboy

Throughout the last several days, concerned citizens trooped to their Facebook and Twitter accounts to express their anger and disgust toward the PDAF scandal that has rocked the very foundation of the Aquino Administration's supposed Tuwid na Daan. News has since come out that the President is calling for the abolition of the Pork Barrel. He actually doesn't have to call for its abolition, he only needs to decide to scrap it altogether since the fund comes from the President himself (and what of the 1 trillion presidential Pork Barrel which account for approximately 30 percent of the national budget?).

And he isn't exactly abolishing it. When you read the news, it says he's proposed scrapping the soft components of the pork barrel-meaning, the hard components stay. In other words, the Pork Barrel stays (less soft components, NGO conduits). Saying that he's abolishing it without really abolishing it is sly and is meant only to avert a crisis come Monday. Total and unconditional abolition is necessary as the corruption in the use of the pork is not merely in its output or lack of output, it's the disbursement itself. It's a glorified bribe from the President so lawmakers are sure to follow his whims and caprices.

This is a cunning and devious ruse, an attempt to fool people into thinking that it's no longer necessary to come out on Monday in protest. So let's still commit to see each other on Monday, at Luneta in Manila, and in Cebu, 7:30 a.m., at Fuente Circle (and then to Plaza Independencia).

Throughout the last week or so, many of us have been busy tinkering with our phones posting our two cents on why the Pork Barrel must be abolished, here are some of mine:

Do our taxes go to financing sustainable infrastructure, improving the public school system, investing in clean and affordable mass transit, building homes for those without, modernizing health care, feeding the malnourished, ensuring stable food supply and upgrading our agriculture sector, mitigating the effects of climate change, updating our police force, or researching viable alternative sources of clean energy?

No, hell no. Our taxes pass through the BIR which collects them, to the National Treasury, the President who proposes the national budget, to Congress which approves the same budget, and thereafter, a considerable amount is disbursed to them as PDAF, of which a big chunk - by way of this methodical and systemic corruption that's institutionalized the plunder of our coffers - is cleverly earmarked to stuff the pockets of these very same leaders we've elected.

Suffice it to say, we unwittingly subsidize these high-living bastards with our hard-earned dough.

When the President commands his lieutenants in both chambers of Congress to toe the line, to pass measures he has prioritized or persecute his political foes, how do you think he scares the bejesus out of them so they cower in obedience? How else but through the PDAF - the Machiavellian cha-cha dance of withholding and releasing the PDAF. And still we ask why almighty Yellow is silent?

So our taxes go to their pockets and to events like this (watch the video of Napoles' daughter's party to feel your nape tighten with raw rage).

Makes me want to either pick their pockets or just picket. Period. What atrocious sons of b*tches.

***

On Inquirer's article, “COA probes 23B gas fund under Arroyo,” published on August 19: Inquirer is at it again, and as ever, the broadsheet is being a tad too obvious. There is soft sell and then there is hard sell. This is no doubt a hard sell.

Friends, witness Yellow's PR machinery - both COA and the Inquirer teaming up this time - moving heaven and earth to veer attention away from Aquino's potholed, winding, and extremely dangerous Daang Matuwid. Why is COA limiting its investigation to cover 2007-2009 and now, of all times, opening an investigation on the Malampaya Fund's use? So they can focus on Arroyo yet again? Napoles' NGOs have continued to receive “support” from lawmakers' PDAFs between 2010-present, way more in fact. So why not include that? Oh what gall.

The only thing that appears irregular so far with the Malampaya Fund's use is the sheer amount of disbursements, that's it. There is no evidence yet that screams of fraud. The fund is in the billions so we can expect allocations and subsequent disbursements to be in the same range. So what COA is doing is essentially a fishing expedition, hoping they get lucky and find just cause, in the process though (with or without an iota of proof), they are able to generate headlines like this, that “Malampaya under Arroyo which involve billions is being investigated.”

Inquirer's article goes to the extent of comparing the Malampaya Fund and the P10B worth of PDAF channeled to Napoles's dubious NGOs, that Malampaya is supposedly worth more, never mind that all disbursements involving Malampaya may have very well been above-board, and that the P10B PDAF scam under Aquino is so res ipsa loquitur (speaks for itself). Again, all in a desperate attempt to divert growing public outrage, one that can easily produce the critical mass all Presidents in the past were weary of and tried, at all costs, to control. Clearly, through his cohorts, Aquino is trying to conveniently pass the buck yet again to the unpopular past. This when there is a more shocking and damning present to contend with.

***

We are so mad at Janet Napoles, but more than her, it is our elected leaders who must be called to task.

Sure, find Janet and bring her to justice. But the politicians who made conduits like Napoles possible are the bigger crooks here, they who have been installed to positions of trust and accountability, they who have reneged on their sworn oaths and duties, and who have gravely betrayed the public trust. They are the bigger evil.

It's disconcerting that while Napoles has gone into hiding, the country's biggest names in politics are still where they are, practically untouchable, granting interviews and pointing fingers while at it, and living the high life with their stolen wealth. Perhaps they are confident, with the President's backing and his resounding statement earlier supporting the PDAF, that they will be left unharmed, unscathed, untouched.

The culture of impunity we thought would end under the overrated Aquino is cultivated further when the weight of such a blatant and widespread and institutionalized crime is borne only by one woman, Napoles.

It takes two to tango, it's oft said, but this, this is a masquerade ball!

In this country, the name of the largest, most well-organized criminal syndicate is not the triad, not the mafiosi, not the cosa nostra, it is the Government of the Republic. And the Godfather is Mr. President himself.