Last year, on May 26, 2014, the big news headlines splashed in our major newspapers and on nationwide television was the report made public by Sen. Teofisto Guingona III where he exposed the names of 20 senators and 100 congressmen, including the names of their alleged agents in the pork barrel transactions that were written in the affidavit of Janet Lim Napoles. Then Sen. Guingona said, “In the spirit of transparency and the search of truth, and in line with my commitment to uphold the public interest, we are going to release to the media and the public and to my fellow senators, the copies of these two affidavits, let the documents speak for itself! ”
As we all know now, the Supreme Court granted the petition for bail sought by former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile who is being held for plunder charges that was featured in the affidavit of Janet Lim Napoles, which Sen. Guingona exposed to the public more than a year ago. The SC imposed a P1 million bail bond for JPE. I reckon that the two other senators incarcerated with JPE, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada and Sen. Bong Revilla, the SC will soon give the same bail conditions to these two senators.
I don’t know why the Department of Justice (DoJ) or should we call them the Department of Injustice is foot-dragging on these cases? Lest we forget, there are 20 senators and 100 congressmen implicated by Janet Lim Napoles and God knows why the wheels of justice have stopped turning!
Last Aug. 11th, the New York Times featured a highly embarrassing article that put the Philippines on top of Asia’s most corrupt economies. This is a testimony of the total failure of Pres. Benigno Aquino III’s so-called “Daang Matuwid.” Since the New York Times is not part and parcel of the Yellow propaganda machinery of the Aquinos, the whole world now knows how corrupt we Filipinos have become under the Aquino Regime.
While we submit that corruption was already endemic during the past administrations, however the Philippines was not on top of this embarrassing list. It was Indonesia that was numero uno. But now under the leadership of PNoy, we’re numero uno as the most corrupt economy in Asia. Shame on us!
Allow me to get an excerpt from that New York Times article which said, “The survey said “The Philippines has the distinction of being perceived in the worst light this year.” “People are just growing tired of the inaction and insincerity of leading officials when they promise to fight corruption.” In all, the survey was conducted in over a two-month period at the beginning of 2015 and questioned 1,476 expat executives in the 13 countries and territories throughout Asia. The Philippines scored 9.40 out of 10 on corruption, giving it the number one spot.
In 2006, the same survey gave the most corrupt nation to Indonesia – in that same year, the Philippines scored a 7.80 – Indonesia was still high in corruption in 2015 with an overall score of 8.03. The survey however said that the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia were systematic in corruption saying in fact they were all just about as bad as one another.” Let me repeat this for emphasis, “People are just growing tired of the inaction and insincerity of leading officials when they promise to fight corruption.” This is the insincerity of Pres. Aquino who keeps rambling about Daang Matuwid in all his speeches but as the New York Times article said is totally insincere about his efforts.
Hey! This is not an article by Aquino’s critics here at home… it was written by an outside source looking into corruption in this country. To those who say that Pres. Aquino is not corrupt… allow me to give them this quotation from a Mexican Proverb, “Tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are!” Again I reiterate that five years into the Aquino presidency, the story of his Porsche is still a state secret today.
There’s more! Yesterday, the Manila Standard whose editor Jojo Robles is a good friend of mine came up with the expose’ on Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV saying that the latter spent P7.5 million on 55 consultants alone. Worse, he included his own brother Juan Antonio Trillanes amongst his highest paid consultants, paying him a total of P427,000 from July to December 2014.
Who is this Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV? Wasn’t he the noisy accuser of Vice President Jejomar Binay during the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee on charges of corruption? Sen. Trillanes acts as if he were “holier than thou” when he lambasted VP Binay in the Senate floor. Come now, we’re not saying that these accusations against Binay is fictitious, it is up to the courts to prove his allegations. But having your own brother to be one of the highly-paid consultants for the Senate smacks nepotism of the highest order! Why can’t Sen. Trillanes ask his friends to find a job for his brother?
The New York Times article has indicted the Aquino presidency and tagged it as the most corrupt economy in Asia. Well, all I can say is this: this is one accusation against PNoy that he cannot pass on the blame to his predecessor. Pres. PNoy is to blame for making us the most corrupt in Asia!
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For email responses to this article, write to vsbobita@mozcom.com or vsbobita@gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.