Let Not Impunity Prevail!

13-071015

NOT EVER in recent memory stretching back to the Marcos dictatorship, has there been such monsters of impunity rearing their ugliest and most shameful display of mass skulduggery – there over breakfast and dinner at Malacañang Palace last Thursday, October 11, 2007.

That day should be remembered as a landmark in the sordid history of shameless official corruption in the Philippines.

Their gross, conscienceless and utterly revolting mockery of our people certainly made those 190 or so BRIBE fattened members of the LOWEST House of Congress and some 50 local government officials, the MOST despicable in the eyes of decent people here and abroad.

But the most morally condemnable and despicable of them all must of course be “Her Smallness” Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. The deviousness of her mendacity last Thursday has no equal whatsoever in the history of wrongdoing emanating from the so-called Palace beside the Pasig River.

And so I should not from hereon ever refer to her as President of the Philippines.

For by comparison, Erap Estrada and even Ferdinand Marcos seem to have had less distorted consciences than “Her Smallness”.

The blunt headlines and reportage (emphasis added) of the Philippines Daily Inquirer the morning after, minced no words and nothing significant was left unmentioned or unclear.

“Palace fixes 190 solons”

“JDV (Speaker Jose de Venecia) backs off; 'sham' impeachment rap goes to committee”

“BATTLING FOR POLITICAL SURVIVAL for the third time in as many years, President Macapagal Arroyo yesterday summoned loyal congressmen to Malacañang and, in a show of strength using send-off gifts, forced Speaker de Venecia to back off from an impeachment move.

“ Envelopes containing cash amounting to between P200,000 and P500,000 were handed out to congressmen at the meeting, along with promises of pork barrel amounting to millions of pesos, hours before administration lawmakers took action in the House of Representatives to protect Ms. Arroyo from being impeached, several lawmakers present at the meeting told the INQUIRER.

WOW! And “wow” once more, but in deep outrage. Thank God however for Governor Ed “Among” Panlilio! He belatedly owned up to receiving P500,000 in cold cash. He now wants to return the money but only if his belated suspicion that it was indeed a bribery attempt will be confirmed by Malacañang's refusal to acknowledge themselves as the money's source. Naive but still honest!

But again, THANK GOD for honest Governor Panlilio and one other Governor who followed his example the following day, TODAY.

“(But) you (other) people, how long

will you harden your hearts?

How long will you delight in deceit

and go in search for falsehood? (Psalm 4:3)

And so I beg all the Bishops and Archbishops of this beleaguered nation to RISE UP with one voice, to condemn such a clearly outrageous flaunting of immorality and hypocrisy. These were HIGH CRIMES, compounded by the mass involvement of public officials with the use of our people's money! It was also sheer BETRAYAL OF PUBLIC TRUST.

LORD, HAVE MERCY ON US!