Moral revolution?
If former Speaker Jose V. de Venecia really loves his
country, he would not have joined the Arroyo government. In all of the seven
years that President Arroyo has been at the reins of government – first by
grabbing and the second by cheating – the congressman from Pangasinan has always
supported her regime, never saying a bad word about the corruption, cheating,
excessive politicking, etc.
Now that he has been yanked out, he is mounting what he calls
a moral revolution to save this country from her. The country should have been
saved from both of them when De Venecia was speaker.
Did it take De Venecia that long to wake up and discover for
himself that he was serving a rotten government?
He woke up only after the President decided to replace him
with Davao Congressman Prospero Nograles.
Who in his right senses will believe that that his moral
revolution is for the good of the country? Maybe only him.
Not one more.
De Venecia has lost all credibility. He is nitpicking and
denouncing the evils of Gloria Arroyo. He participated in some of them. The
North Rail is just one example.
And if he had known that President Arroyo is the leech that
bleeds this country, why did he not support the impeachment filed by the
Opposition. He aborted it instead.
\What he should have denounced is the fact that the President
picks the House speaker, no matter the mouthings of separation of powers. But he
too was picked by the President.
JDV is cornered. He should stop talking.
If the truth must be told
Since Cong. Jose de Venecia is on a moral crusade, he might
as well start with himself. It is for the benefit of the country and its people
if he would divulge the accounts of the House under his leadership.
If he does, we may know whether or not servants in his house
and drivers are paid by the government. It would be edifying for us to know how
much in taxpayers money was spent by the House for what.
Without this disclosure, De Venecia has no moral authority to
talk about moral revolution. The House is known for disbursing money to those
extremely loyal to the keeper of the purse.
The members of the Opposition get crumbs and they get them
too late. Why, for example, would there be irrigation projects for some parts of
Metro Manila and nearby provinces? I see no new irrigated fields except small
patches planted to rice in some towns along the South Superhighway.
People would also want to know how much money was given to
favorite or favored members of Congress for textbooks, medicines, farm-to-market
roads, etc.
These projects are verifiable. There should be records in the
House. The projects should be there. But suppose they are not there? There goes
De Venecia’s moral revolution.
Reform starts with self. Not by demanding that others do it.
Only turncoats do that, and De Venecia is a turncoat.
Benefits from JDV statement
I have just said that hardly anybody believes JDV when he
talks about a moral revolution. But to the greater mass of people, they might
consider him a hero.
The interpretation, for example, of poor people in my barrio
is that JDV finally got sick and tired of the cheating, corruption and lying by
President Arroyo.
He had to turn his back on her for the good of the country.
His statements against his President add fuel to the fire
that is steadily burning the Arroyo regime. A point has been reached where even
lies against the administration are taken as gospel truth
On the other hand, the administration may be talking like
their words come straight from the Bible. Yet nobody believes a word of it
precisely because the regime has not changed course. It remains on the path to
destruction.
The Lozada case may yet give us the truth. But many of us
hardly care about the truth because we seldom hear it. All we want is for her to
resign, either because she lies through her teeth or because somebody like
Lozada dared to tell the truth.
Truth is elusive and rare. Maybe that is the reason President
Arroyo hardly talks about it. She keeps the truth to herself precisely because
it is a rare, precious and elusive commodity.
‘If you are bad …’
My friend, Sen. Joker Arroyo had what at that time of the
campaign was a damn good slogan, "Kung bad ka, lagot ka." Loosely translated the
slogan means that if one is bad he will be punished. What does he now say about
the revelation of Jun Lozada’s revelation that somebody asked him to see the
senator’s wife, Fely Aquino Arroyo, in their home.
Jun Lozada was asked not to appear in the Senate
investigation. That must be bad because it was an effort to hide the truth.
"Kung bad ka, lagot ka."
The Arroyo regime is trying to prove that Joker Arroyo is
right. Malacañang is throwing everything at Lozada, including the clichéd
kitchen sink. He is bad. Or is it Joker Arroyo proving himself wrong? He, too is
bad, probably worse.
Malacañang is taking us for a ride, or so they think. The
government will charge Lozada for alleged violations of the anti-graft law.
Fine. Jail him for a petty crime that he himself admitted.
He has a better than fair of being convicted. After all, in
this country, only the small fry go to jail.
The bigger thieves get away precisely because they are big.
And they become big because they enjoy the support of big people in Malacañang.
How did Malacañang "fail" to smell a potential scandal like
the ZTE when the President herself flew to China just to witness the contract
signing at a time when her husband was very ill? That tells a lot.
The greatest show on earth
As if to present a semblance of fairness, Ombudsman
Merceditas Gutierrez declared that she will not participate in the investigation
of the ZTE scandal. She said she has assigned the job to her senior deputy. To
begin with, if you want to be picky about it, Gutierrez is abandoning her duty.
The guess I am making is that the First Gentleman and maybe
also Ben Abalos will be cleared. When that happens she can always say she took
no part in it. But even if she does not take part, the Ombudsman will clear Jose
Miguel Arroyo, maybe it wont be because they were law classmates in the Ateneo.
It’s just that there is insufficient evidence.
In this country, the sufficiency or insufficiency of evidence
depends how high on the totem the accused is. But there will always be
sufficient evidence against high school principals, teachers, chief clerks, etc.
The powerful people are as clean as a whistle. The
investigator always interprets the rules of evidence not in his best light but
to save the neck of people to whom he owes a favor.
Until the Ombudsman summons Joc Joc Bolante who squandered P1
billion for GMA’s campaign in 2004, the present Ombudsman will always be
perceived as a shield against the crimes or sins of big people. We will see this
in the investigation of the NBN scandal.
Abalos has the ace
Former Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos may appear worried
about the ZTE scandal. But I guess he should not worry at all. He has all the
aces.
If he is ready to sacrifice his own life for the country and
the truth, he should, like Lozada, tell the people everything he knows about the
cheating that made Gloria Arroyo President in 2004. Malacañang knows Abalos is a
bomb waiting to explode. That is why they are taking care of him.
His inclusion in the NBN probe is all for show.
However, if they squeeze him or if Abalos wakes up to see the
light, he just might do a Lozada. Damn the torpedoes, he might tell himself.
Rather remote at the moment, but one can hope.
Some want to clear their conscience. Look at Lozada.
