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Embedding Perversion
“The nail that sticks out gets hammered,” says the old Pilipino proverb. And so it came to pass that thieves now try to pound whistleblower Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada flat. Ex-environment Secretary Mike Defensor is a 24-hour-seven-day Malacanang vassal. He tried, but failed, to get Lozada to skip Senate hearings on the ZTE broadband scam. That $132 million, project bloated into a $329 million fraud, after the President teed off with ZTE officials. Cost overruns (bukols) padded the cost, Lozada told Senate probers. The First Gentleman and allies, like ex-elections commissioner Benjamin Abalos, warned Lozada to scam. “Shanghaied” by government agents, Lozada has, since then been fired and harassed. Now, he’s sued by Defensor, who earlier slobbered on TV: he bled for Lozada’s welfare. La Salle Brothers gave Lozada and family refuge from such “friends”. Arroyo regime figures lobbed the kitchen sink at Lozada: from dishonesty, theft and, if Defensor is right, perjury. He got a Manila judge to reverse earlier dismissal of the same perjury charges. The judge ordered Lozada’s arrest. “Face the music” chortled Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita. “This arrest order is a brazen abuse of power by this administration”, countered. the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines. “Lozada’s fault was he had “courage to tell people the truth about state sponsored corrupt practices,” AMRSP said. “We deplore use of courts and law enforcement agencies in continuing harassment.” The arrest warns other potential whistleblowers “shut up or else.” Of course, it’s a threat. But who does the threatening? “The voice is that of Jacob,” the blind Isaac said. “But the hands are those of Esau.” The track record can be instructive. Acsa Ramirez warned the Land Bank Binangonan branch about “suspicious payments” :over the 4 million peso threshold. There was also a dubious P26 billion transaction. NBI agents shoved her instead into a police lineup “for money laundering” as photo op for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The President never apologized. The Supreme Court thrashed Commission on Elections for paying P1.3-billion, for 1,991 flawed computers. Mega-Pacific Consortiu, an 11-day-old firm, never paid back a centavo, as ordered by the Court. Instead, it sued computer expert Augusto Lagman for libel. Udong Mahusay worked in the First Gentleman’s office. He recanted all allegations on big scale corruption. “There were summary execution threats,” notes the study by Dr Gabriella Quimson on Philippine whistleblowers. “To save his life and family” his retraction stated he was “just being vindictive”. Double-Agent Mary “Rose Bud” Ong linked Senator Panfilo Lacson to the Hong Kong drug triads”. Narcotics Command chief Reynaldo Acop dabbled in to illegal drugs. PNP generals dipped into jueteng, money laundering and wiretapping,etc. Bodyguards have been withdrawn from the jobless Rose Bud. Her live-in partner John Campos was shot in the back. She is “totally isolated” notes the same Quimson study. Public Estates Authority’s Sulpicio Tagud denounced “unsanctioned P600-million price escalations” for the“President Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard”. Ms Arroyo offered this as “gift to the people”. Tagud received death threats. Philippine Anti-Graft Commission concluded that prima facie evidence for corruption existed” But nobody has been jailed. Yet, the good that denouncers do is patent. Banker Clarissa Ocampo, for example, candidly testified that President Joseph Estrada signed as the notorious “Jose Velarde.” Emma Lim told the Erap impeachment that jueteng kickbacks were shunted to “Jingle Bells”. Antonio Calipjo Go documented flawed textbooks . This compelled the Education Department to take corrective measures. “In this country, those who horsewhip money changers out of the temple often end up excoriated,” Sun Star editorially noted. “The ultimate perversion is to beatify the crooks and crucify the whistleblowers”. The absence of a legal framework makes the personal cost of whistle blowing very high, Dr Romulo Miral wrote in an Asian Institute of Management study. “It can sometimes be a matter of life and death.” The 50 AIM survey respondents agreed that whistleblowers are in “short supply.” There’s no shortage of ideas on how to craft safeguards for whistleblowers. The glitch is those who can adopt reforms are often the very people who need denouncing. A culture of impunity buttresses their inaction. Thieves are not ostracized in this country. Their cash, in fact, buys them first places at table. The Arroyo administration did not invent the system that “beatifies the crooks and crucifies the whistleblowers”. But it’s massive corruption has embedded this perverted system in depths the Marcos kleptocracy never plumbed. “Every failure to recover proceeds of corruption feeds its growth.” warned, 9th International Anti-Corruption Conference in Durham, South Africa. “Governments must create an environment that encourages, instead of penalizes, citizens who denounce venality.” The crackdown on Lozada shows that the Durham statement falls on deaf ears here. Jeruasalem also stoned it’s prophets. E-mail: juanlmercado@gmail.com |
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