ere we ago again,
with Gloria Arroyo trotting out statistics as evidence of her laughable claim
that she has done more to curb corruption in government than any of her
predecessors. She said she has allocated at least P3 billion for the
anti-corruption program in recent years, enabling the Ombudsman to hire more
lawyers to build cases against grafters and prosecute them, as well as
investigators to mount lifestyle checks.
We are only waiting for Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez to
come up with figures showing more cases investigated, filed in court and
successfully prosecuted, which is to be expected, for a more compliant Ombudsman
to Malacañang’s wishes we have not seen (Aniano Desierto used to hold that
distinction).
And what will all these figures prove? Only that Gutierrez
has been running only after clerks.
The big fish, that is, presidential appointees are supposed
to be handled by the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission. Even the bottom feeders
in this chain of Gloria appointees, however, routinely get away with murder, er,
rather theft.
We can recall two recent cases. One, who is connected with
Customs, had been recommended for suspension/dismissal for accumulating houses
and lots, including beach resorts, the value of which is grossly disproportional
to his salary. The recommendation has been sleeping the sleep of the dead. The
other was linked to the registration of smuggled luxury vehicles. He was allowed
to exit gracefully by going back to a decorative office in a line department.
The two examples we cited are only retired police colonels.
If they are beyond the reach of anti-corruption bodies, what more with retired
generals?
And that is the trouble with Gloria’s anti-corruption
program. As one gets higher, the more one is safe from prosecution. At the top,
it’s no longer security from prosecution but constitutionally enshrined immunity
that leads the biggest of thieves to believe they can steal with impunity.
The lead should come from the top. In the case of the $329
million national broadband deal, it was Arroyo herself who told Romulo Neri to
approve the deal when the latter told her of a P200 million bribery attempt by
Benjamin Abalos who, according to original proponent Jose de Venecia III, had
Mike Arroyo as his "padrino."
Arroyo was also on record as leaving the sickbed of her
husband to stand as witness in China of what she already knew was a tainted
deal.
But we are belaboring the obvious. This is an administration whose
unparalleled rapacity is made more galling by its pious appeal to honesty and
transparency.
