I have always tried to avoid dealing with politics, governance, or corruption. There are enough discussions on these issues. But it’s extremely difficult not to comment on what’s happening now because things are becoming so frustratingly difficult such that a culture of hate (ordinary souls like me beginning to hate their leaders and officials) seems to be hatching. The ordinary Filipinos are becoming so very angry, particularly given the revelations regarding corruption in the AFP where the protagonists are clearly identified and appear to be guilty yet so arrogant in their denials.
We must understand that there’s a limit to human patience. This limit, among Filipinos, is so close now given the succession of exposes about corruption in the AFP and other government instrumentalities. I dread to see what could happen when we get to that ultimate limit, collectively the limit to the Filipino national patience. Things could go way beyond the magnitude of EDSA I. Necessarily this may have to happen because it appears we didn’t learn from EDSA I. A more serious condition may have to happen so we can learn from it. I dread what this condition might be.
What makes the current exposes so devastatingly frustrating is the magnitude of indifference and lack of human concern among AFP officials for their subordinates dying in the battlefields. While incompetent and corrupt officials, notably the Chiefs of Staff and Comptrollers of the AFP, have been pocketing hundreds of millions of pesos from the operating funds of the AFP, thousands of soldiers are being killed out there in the fields. For example, the soldiers who are dying to protect us so that we can enjoy our lives have to subsist on fifty pesos per day while their superiors are wallowing in millions. For heaven’s sake, fifty pesos is even less than what the informal settlers of Metro Manila subsist on.
We must remember that these AFP officials, who are stealing the money of the people, even graduated from the PMA, a government institution. And while studying at PMA, free, they even received salaries. They never had it so good. On the other hand, the soldiers who are exposing themselves to great danger in the field to defend us ordinary Filipinos have never had the privilege of studying at PMA, that’s why they can’t be promoted to Non-Commissioned Officer status. Incidentally, this organizational structure in the military is a systemic means of keeping the juicy perks in the military to the PMAers. In the history of the Philippine military establishment, there has been only once that the CS was not a PMA graduate or a graduate of some other Military Academy in the US. That was when the CS was Gen. Romeo Espino, who was a graduate of advanced ROTC course from the then UP College of Agriculture way back.
During the Senate hearing on the plea bargaining arrangement between Carlos Garcia and the Office of the Ombudsman, it was very clear that Garcia was hiding something and refused to talk. He invoked his right against self-incrimination so wantonly even if he did not have any case to incriminate himself in. His behavior in the Senate hearing was a catastrophic symbol of arrogance against the Filipino people. He’s treating the senators with kid gloves, and I don’t know if the senators felt so. The other previous AFP Comptroller, Ret. LtGen Ligot was of the same stuff. He could recall events more than two decades ago but could not recall major events just eleven years ago. Such sudden amnesia is clearly a tactic to hide something. These two guys were lying through their teeth, everybody listening to the radio coverage and watching television coverage could feel it to their bones. Sen. Trillanes appears to have been proven right.
Let's not forget the juicy part. Col. Rabusa claimed he gave P160M in monthly increments of P10M, (Garcia refused to admit or deny this) which was supposed to have been kept by Maj Gen Carlos Garcia until the total amount of P160M was raised so he could give the lumpsum amount to CS Diomedio Villanueva. upon his retirement as CS. But Villanueva, in an earlier statement, denied knowing the "pabaon" much less received the P160M that Gen. Carcia was supposed to have given to him. Similarly, Gen Cimatu was supposed to have received P80M, but he, too, denied earlier having any knowledge about the "pabaon" system much less received P80M. Now, where's the P240M? Well, Garcia would say, "With due respect, your honor . . ." always refusing to give any information on the grounds he might incriminate himself even he was advised he could no longer incriminate himself having pleaded guilty to a lessor offense.
Then, of course, there’s the Ombudsman, who has clearly made a mistake (intentionally or not) and standing pat on her decisions that practically penalized the Filipinos in general. I believe she was trying to show toughness, but that was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She should have demonstrated toughness in the numerous other cases involving the past administration but she cowered before the corrupt and powerful then. I think the Ombudsman has lost the privilege to serve as Ombudsman because she has clearly demonstrated ineptness and bias. Her major decisions have been practically against the ordinary Filipino. All her “right” decisions have been against the small fry and the big and wrong decisions in favor of the criminals disguised as officials of government and the AFP.
I think Ret. LtCol George Rabusa and former Auditor Heidi Mendoza are both credible witnesses. Col. Lim, who has come out in support of Rabusa, is another credible witness. We should listen to them. And the Government and the Filipino people must protect them. The past CSs, who have benefited from the “pabaon” and “pasalubong” programs of the AFP are saying they’re not aware of the whole thing and Garcia and Ligot are not helping us understand the whole phenomena, but everything is clear in the public’s mind. The Filipinos are very frustrated. Nay, they are angry, very angry.
What more can I say but quote Sen. Trillanes. As he so sarcastically told off Gen. Angelo Reyes in the Senate hearing, “No, you may not speak. You have no integrity to protect.”
What’s this telling us? Are we going back to the era of the “tooth for a tooth.” This is what I dread most.
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