stupid people in high places

I was the typical old man in this blog’s title.  I was irked to the nines because of the development surrounding the Pork Barrel Scam and resultant events.  It was not only the humongous amount involved that got me incensed this much but also the people linked to these.  I really felt an intense need to do something about this welling rage but this something that I could think of had me in a familiar quandary anew;  the same Catch-22 I was in when I was writing “will I or will I not” (see http://raulgalangsarmiento.blogspot.com/2013/06/will-i-or-will-i-not.html).

  It took me a long while, as evinced by my last post, before I finally decided to recklessly throw all cautions in the wind to ease this anger.  Even if I don’t have certain immunity from suits like them, I’ve decided to “cyber bully” these people in high places.  Far from being like them and typical bullies, I chose people much bigger—in this case, bigger only in our society’s misplaced regard on who is big and respectable—not weaker and defenseless to pick a fight on.   Imagine what more I could have done had I’ve been infected by the same “virus” that affects the so-called dragon ladies in the government—DOJ Secretary Leila De Lima, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales and BIR Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares—now running after these scum bugs.  The least, maybe, is roast them with the fire I breathe until their bodies are drained of all those pork lard they'd consumed.  

Even without this virus, though, the conditions are too compelling and too overbearing that ordinary previously apathetic citizens now dare to show their outrage over these brazenly decadent and perverted developments in our society.  In the past, there were hardly voices in the wilderness, so to speak, which denounced the country’s social malaise and merited attention.  But the situation is now much different.  Thanks mostly to the socially desirable and beneficial effects of information and communication technologies, they’ve developed just as fast, gained greater momentum and would most likely morph into something bigger if certain vested interests will not stunt the naturally evolving conditions that would nourish their growth and will not overpower and co-opt the development of the other but more important actors.  I’ll expound on this in my next blog. 

In this blog, I’m going against the commonly accepted definition of the legal maxim presumption of innocence—the burden lies with who declares, not who denies (Wikipedia 2013)—that crooks in high places always invoked to profess their guiltlessness.  This they’ve resorted repeatedly even after being initially declared guilty by the highest court of the land, the Supreme Court.

  Although I only have a 3-unit course that had something to do with law during my undergraduate program, Farm Laws in particular, I completely subscribed to jurisprudence that this should not be “considered evidence of the defendant’s innocence”  (The Free Dictionary 2013).  This is also why I totally agreed with the declaration of the venerable but irreverent Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz that politicians allegedly involved in the Pork Barrel Scam, and any other crimes for that matter, should be assumed guilty until proven otherwise by a competent court of law.  I sincerely believe that this should be the norm in dealing with elected, appointed too, government officials entrusted with substantial powers because of their too many undeserved privileges never available to ordinary citizens like us.  The more that this should be case since traditional interpretation of our jurisprudence on presumption of innocence is not absolute for the defendant could still be jailed while on trial once initial evidence presented was deemed to constitute probable cause that s/he has committed a crime.

With this, I now start my cyber bullying.

As a result of the continuing coverage of the Pork Barrel Scam, I’ve discovered—I’m sure other people too—that  the Senate and the House of Representatives are populated by the most stupid people in our country.  Nay, these people are also found in the august halls of the Malacaňan Palace as photographic evidences of their occupants’ dalliances with the Napoleses are either being slowly leaked to or discovered by the media and as the Aquino administration tries to rationalize the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), its newly coined term for pork barrel to differentiate it from the old and much maligned Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).  This actually is no longer new for it is a recurring occurrence.  These and other similar actuations are in fact regular incidents in Philippine public management and governance. 
(Last year, those who stayed glued to their TV sets to watch the impeachment trial of the chief magistrate of the Supreme Court, Renato Corona, could have concluded that this institution was no different from the two other branches of our government.  More so, if one had read "SHADOW OF DOUBT PROBING THE SUPREME COURT" (Marites Dangilan Vitug (2010).  Most likely, the trueness of this conclusion would be strengthened further as the Supreme Court pursues its investigation over its own version of Janet Lim-Napoles, Ma'am Arlene.)

But what’s new today though was how these people are losing their minds as they outdo each other in coming out with the most outrageous denials of their undeniable pork grease-laced liaisons with the Napoleses and their use of pork barrel, thus, exhibit the height of their stupidity in the process.   The veracity of this looms as clear as a photograph taken by a high-megapixel top-of-the-line DLSR camera during a cloudless sunny midday.  What made them more stupid was their unchanging assumption that they can always freely get away from their wrong doings against the Filipino people.  They repeatedly mistook our people’s apparently never-ending patience to fearfulness, naivety and apathy.  They surely have not learned from the past.  These stupid people acted as if EDSA I, EDSA II and EDSA III were figment in the nation's consciousness. 

Take Jinggoy Estrada for example.  He had been previously charged with plunder together with his criminal president-father, now city mayor of Manila.  Obviously, he did not learn, or did he just opt not to learn?, any lesson from their criminal past.  Instead of atoning for his and his father's sins to the Filipino people and thinking of a better legacy to leave after he was elected senator in 2004, look where he busied himself.  Is he that stupid to think that he’ll be as lucky and be accorded the same fate of his father when he was pardoned by the equally corrupt ex-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, now second district representative of Pampanga?
If that's what he thought while doing all these despicable and vile acts against the Filipino people, then, there's no proof more apt than this of his stupidity. Pushed against the wall, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had adroitly reduced the threat to her shaky “robbed” presidential reign when she pardoned Erap Estrada as soon as he was declared guilty of plunder.  Even if the current brouhaha over the pork barrel would end up knocking at the doors of the palace and threaten the Pnoy dispensation, Jinggoy's pardon won't accomplish anything to dissipate, not even abate, such a threat. 

This Economics graduate from UP Manila apparently learns very little from his highly esteemed alma mater to entertain thoughts that the masses would be duped into storming the gates of Malacaňang if ever he’s declared guilty and incarcerated in a regular prison, not in his rest house nor in a high-end hospital-prison.  The more you'll conclude this if you consider his last privileged speech in the Senate. Instead of refuting the charges against him, his speech turned out to be a demolition job not only of himself but also the scum bugs like him in both chambers of the Congress.   Former Education Secretary Edilberto de Jesus writing in his column declared that by employing what he called the “Peanut Butter Defense” (Philippine Daily Inquirer 5 October 2013:A13), Jinggoy “spreads the blame beyond personalities. After brushing his colleagues with the black paint of corruption, he generously excuses them and himself by blaming the system: ‘I believe that we are all the victims of a flawed system, which is so ingrained that it has been instutionalized’.”  What gall, he and his equally corrupt legislator-colleagues, victims?  

 But if you think that’s the best soap from the Senate, well, better wait what Jinggoy’s bosom buddy, Bong Revilla, is cooking.  He just threatened to go after his “tormentors”.  What he’ll do this time?  When this issue first hogged the national limelight, he was the first one to come out with his guns blazing claiming it was a demolition job for he’s THE front runner in the coming 2016 presidential derby.  He quickly retreated like a dog with its tail in between its legs, though, and made himself scarce when various photos of him getting chummy with Janet Napoles got front page treatment from major media outfits.  I thought that was a very intelligent act from someone who’s never attended to college. 

But now, he just aired his threat to defend his allegedly soiled reputation.  And that’s worth the wait.  Will he upend the vaudeville staged by his best friend Jinggoy?  Although the latter was ridiculed left and right over his privileged speech, it cannot be denied that this accomplished its real objective.  It did not only deflect the attacks on him and his fellow scum bugs but has successfully put the Pnoy administration on the defensive.  In fact, the president now appears to be the felon and the perpetrator of the scum. 

This of course will not be possible without the input of stupid people freely roaming the halls of Malacaňan Palace.  Just like how Jinggoy and his bosom buddy, Bong, did to the issues thrown to them, they too miserably bungled the handling of the DAP and the surrender of Napoles, in particular, and the president's fight against corruption, in general, which Benjamin Pimentel (Inquirer Global Nation 15 October 2013) claimed they made to sound like a religious crusade instead of a political battle.  The lack of unity in their explanation of the DAP has stirred the curiosity and scrutiny of the people and put their boss in neck-deep shit where Jinggoy, Bong and Juan Ponce Enrile are in.  What's revolting is, Pnoy is practically blaming everybody for this but not his own people and himself.

And with the certainty of Janet Lim-Napoles appearing before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee after Frank Drilon dilly-dallied for quite some time before finally caving in to pressure to sign the subpoena, the plot thickens.  The Vaudeville of the Swinos will surely be the ultimate entertainment of the people wallowing in poverty and still reeling from the effects of disasters as it will surely showcase the stupidity of people in high places. (30)

References:  1.  Wikipedia 27 August 2013

                    2.  The Free Dictionary 2013

                    3.  Edilberto de Jesus.  Business Matters,  “The Peanut Butter Defense”.   Philippine Daily

                          Inquirer. 5 October 2013.

                    4.  Benjamin Pimentel.  Kwento, “The Problem with ‘Daang Matuwid’. Inquirer Global

                              Nation. www.inquirer.net