Can politicians emulate Jesus against temptations?  

Today's Gospel Matt 4 1-11, tells us how Jesus resisted temptation during his most vulnerable moments. Just done with his 40-day fasting, he was tempted with bread, provoked to show off his powers as the son of God, and promised the whole world if he would bow before Satan. Every day, presidents, senators, congressmen, governors, mayors, and even barangay captains are being tempted. Most of them succumb to Satan.

Wikipedia tells us of the most controversial scandals in Philippine history when presidents and other officials were blamed (I didn’t say found guilty) of massive corruption. I shall mention only the major, major for lack of space. In 1949, the presidency of Manuel Roxas was embroiled in the war property surplus scandal involving no less than $90 billion, a massive amount at that time when the dollar was only worth P2. It was alleged that such a scandal led the peasants of Central Luzon, led by the Hukbalahap of Luis Taruc, to mount a renewed insurgency movement. The popularity of Roxas plummeted until he died of a heart attack and his equally-controversial vice president, Elpidio Quirino, became president.

Quirino's administration is remembered for its infamous golden arinola scandal in 1950, which involved an alleged overpricing of a urinal and which symbolized the supposed massive corruption in the purchase of materials for public use. One good thing to come out of that controversy was the creation by the Philippine Senate of the Blue Ribbon Committee. During the administration of Diosdado Macapagal American businessman Harry Stonehill was charged by Secretary of Justice Jose Diokno of multiple offenses including smuggling and cheating in tariff, customs duties and internal revenue taxes. Diokno raided the offices of Stonehill. Instead of being commended, Diokno was ousted from the Cabinet.

During the time of President Marcos Sr. various controversies were also exposed but most of them remained unproven. They include the famous coco levy fund controversy, the behest loans for alleged cronies and retired generals, the alleged Bataan Nuclear Power Plant bribery, and charges about corruption of the Japanese official development assistance fund. Well, nothing was proven, no one went to jail. The cases remained a mystery to many. During the FVR presidency, there was a notorious PEA-Amari scandal in 1995, involving the controversial acquisition of the 158-hectare reclaimed land in Manila Bay. During the short stint of Erap in Malacañang, his presidency was embroiled in the so-called textbook scandal and the hot cars scandal. His presidency ended because of an impeachment trial brought about by the jueteng scandal.

GMA's presidency was marred by multiple controversies, aside from the "Hello Garci" furor. Those included the fertilizer scam involving an infamous Department of Agriculture undersecretary and the alleged unaccounted amount of P728 million. There were three Court of Appeals justices in 2008 who were linked to an alleged bribery case involving the GSIS acquisition of Meralco shares. In 1998 also, a huge scandal under the GMA presidency was the Philippine National Broadband Network. It involved Chinese network company ZTE which was supposedly awarded a highly-questionable contract worth $329 million. It turned out that the accused were acquitted but the witnesses and whistleblowers were persecuted and their lives became miserable.

In 2008, a general went to Russia and was held there for carrying a huge amount of money. He was referred to as the Euro-general. In 2011, another general, in fact the AFP chief of staff, committed suicide after he was allegedly charged for corruption. During the PNoy presidency several senators were accused of the so-called Napoles PDAF controversy involving ghost cooperatives and ghost projects. Two senators were detained, one was acquitted, and the two others still have a pending case. The Duterte presidency witnessed the scandal of a female Tourism secretary who allegedly awarded a project to a network which favored her brother. Now we hear of the textbook controversy and the alleged anomalies in the procurement of vaccines, investigated by former Blue Ribbon chairman Dick Gordon.

There are persistent rumors about Customs, BIR, Immigration, even PhilHealth and in all nooks and crannies of the bureaucracy where there is discretion in decision making, even in the courts, and quasi-judicial tribunals. But rumors are not evidence. The public knows these exist but the Ombudsman and the Sandiganbayan do not have evidence to convict. The way I see it, it seems that Satan has more followers today than Jesus Christ. Temptation is not a sin, but whenever public officials succumb to temptations Satan wins.