The Triad, the Yakuza and the Phl Congress

For many decades, Asia has seen the rise of criminal syndicates that have been glamorized in many blockbuster movies. Among them are the Chinese Triad syndicate and the Japanese Yakuza. These gangsters are infamous for the violence they do against those who oppose them…even the police. You can easily spot a Yakuza member by merely looking at his little finger, which is chopped off as part of their initiation rite. Today, these criminal syndicates continue to thrive in an era of corruption in most Asian cities.

Out of the blue, the Philippines recently joined this illustrious band of vagabonds… they are called Senators and Congressmen. What’s the difference? In the case of the Triad or the Yakuza the police is after them all the time. But unfortunately, the Legislature, the greatest criminal syndicate that preys upon the Filipino people, have their own police to escort them into their luxurious homes, which is why they don’t live in fear unlike the Yakuza or the Triad who hide in the shadows. These crooked politicians are even bestowed a grandiose title of “Honorable” and are given a special plate number to identify them from the rest of the rabble.

I recently saw a colored photo of two babies in my Facebook account. One was a very clean baby lying in a beautiful crib, the other was a baby lying in a pool of mud with a very dirty face and the caption said, “The parents of this baby (in the mud) voted to make the parents of the other baby to Congress and become rich.” This is a truism in this country where the political elite buy the votes of the unwashed and the ignorant so they would stay in power forever and ever and ever. This situation has got to stop now!

Again let me repeat what I’ve been saying all along, that in the 1986 EDSA Revolt, we rose against Ali Baba and the Americans removed their “Boy” to the safety of Hawaii, but because of the euphoria we allowed the 40 thieves to stay and continue on. We were under Martial Law for 14 years under Marcos… but under the rule of the 40 Thieves, it has now taken 28 years for the Filipino people to realize that we’ve all been taken for a ride. The political elite led by President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III wants to ensure the preservation of their political class to the detriment of the Filipino people.

It was on Aug. 28, 2013, when the fugitive Janet Lim Napoles surrendered no less to President Aquino for the crime of kidnapping or holding Ben-Hur Luy against his will. It’s been more than 9 months since she surrendered and despite the Senate hearings and that “not-so-secret” list of Senators whom she implicated in the pork barrel scam, it was only last April 1 that the Office of the Ombudsman filed charges against Napoles together with the three Senators, Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla. They said that it was the first batch of 39 lawmakers, government officials and private individuals who were implicated in the pork barrel scam. If a criminal were poor, he’d be locked up in jail right now.

How many more months does the Ombudsman need to file the same charges against those people implicated in that case? In the meantime, Department of Justice (DoJ) Secretary Leila de Lima met for five hours with Janet Napoles and obtained from her that very controversial list that she says was “Explosive.” It’s been 15 days since the whole Philippines knew that this list existed. But in those 15 short days, this list seems to have grown like the nose of Pinocchio.

Aside from the Napoles list, we have the De Lima list, then now we have a Ping Lacson list, then whistleblower Sandra Cam also has her own list and finally, no less than P-Noy revealed he too has his own list. So the million-peso question is…which list is the credible one? I personally believe that the list belonging to P-Noy is a sanitized list and how dare him hide this list from the Filipino people. He ought to resign in shame!

Last night the TV Networks came up with their own list, which aside from the usual suspects, Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla, they now include the other “Honorables” Chiz Escudero, Miriam Santiago, Alan Peter Cayetano and sister Pia, Loren Legarda, Bongbong Marcos, Koko Pimentel, Vic Sotto, and Manny Villar. If you’ll notice I didn’t put the name Senator before their respective names.

It is the first time that I have ever done this because in my book, they don’t deserved to be called Honorable. Sure, not one of them would admit to their guilt. But the least they ought to do is go on a leave of absence. But instead Senate Blue Ribbon Committee Chairman Teofisto Guingona III has summoned DoJ Sec. Leila de Lima to reveal her list. But we have no way of knowing whether these have been sanitized or not. At this point, I join my fellow STAR columnist Federico Pascual’s call to have the Napoles list in the custody of Cardinal Chito Tagle or the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines (CBCP). They are the only credible people left that we trust.

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