"Everybody talks about the weather but nobody seems to do anything about it."
Charles Dudley Warner - Hartford Courant of Connecticut August 27, 1897
In my experience, the same could be said about corruption in the Philippines. Corruption has been endemic in the Philippines since the Spanish Era, and affects every level of Philippine Society. Under the Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, corruption was elevated to a fine art ... but, it seems, at long last the Filipino people are ready to confront Typhoon Pork-Barrel
The trigger of this People Power reawakening is explained in this July 14, 2013 editorial in the Philippine Daily Inquirer "Greedy Ghosts"
Businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles stands accused, by six former employees, including a trusted cousin, of masterminding a massive fraud—diverting government funds, mainly from the Priority Development Assistance Fund or the so-called “pork barrel” of senators and congressmen, to multiple ghost projects or ghost organizations. The diversion allowed both Napoles’ company, called JLN after her initials, and the legislators or their staff involved in the fraud to share the government funds between themselves. The ghost projects or ghost organizations were created for one express purpose: to allow the pork barrel funds to be released, straight into the pockets of cooperative legislators and staff, and also into Napoles’ bathtub.
“These bags [of money] were piled in the master bedroom and in the bathtub of her bathroom,” Benhur Luy, the cousin of Napoles who used to serve as her personal assistant, told the Inquirer.
This revelation kicked up quite a squall. Corruption is commonplace in the Philippines, but the amount of money involved as well as the number of Philippine Congressmen and Senators under Napoles corrupt umbrella, really tipped the scales on public involvement.
Senators linked to the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam should take a leave of absence pending formal investigation, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said Monday.
Santiago, speaking before the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants, said the senators should take a leave so they couldn't be accused of using their positions to skirt the investigation currently being conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). GMA
As for Philippine Congresspersons ...
“We are not yet done identifying exactly the lawmakers and other executive officials who could be charged because there is sufficient evidence,” she said during the congressional hearing on the Department of Justice budget.
“We will only announce that list when we are ready really to file already the charges and we will endorse that, we will endorse the report of the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) to the Ombudsman with our recommendations and Ombudsman will act accordingly.”
“What is clear to us now, to the NBI, is the scheme used by JLN (company) and Janet Napoles in relation to PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) and in relation to Malampaya (funds),” she added.
Members of the House of Representatives who would eventually land in the charge sheet would not be able to hide behind parliamentary immunity, said 1-BAP Rep. Silvestre Bello III, a lawyer. Philippine Daily Inquirer
The Philippine economy, that in Asia in the early 1960's was in the prosperous company of Taiwan, fell to the bottom with Bangladesh at the end of the Marco's Kleptocracy in 1986. The Cory Aquino Government brought hope, but despite the support of People Power the culture of corruption remained. The Philippine Government has become more a fashion show of elites, sports heroes and entertainers, than a functioning engine of Filipino empowerment, and, because of this, 9.5 million Filipinos, or about 10% of the 94 million population of the Philippines have gone abroad in search of economic opportunity to support their families at home as
Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW), whose remittances home (US$20.117 billion in 2011) represents 13.5% of the Philippines GDP.
Through the Presidencies of Aquino, Ramos, Estrada, and Arroyo ... the latter under "Hospital Arrest" facing charges of electoral sabotage and plunder ... the problem of Philippine Corruption has deepened and widened. In the past, the current Pork-Barrel Scam may have been overlooked, but thanks to Social Media and inter-connectivity of Filipinos all around the world, the game has changed. The voiceless now have a voice.
Outraged by the Pork Barrel Scam revelations, evidenced by absurd government projects that presented a corruption red flag like a P7.87 million Flag Pole to be erected before a monument to the national hero, Jose Rizal, in the Luneta ... Filipino Netizens took to the virtual streets:
"What we need is a MILLION PEOPLE MARCH by struggling Filipino taxpayers- a day of protest by the silent majority that would demand all politicians and govt. officials (whatever the political stripes, color they may carry) to stop pocketing our taxes borne out from our hard work by means of these pork barrel scams and other creative criminal acts." artist Ito Rapadas
This was the call to action that started the Anti-Corruption People Power Movement, as three friends, Arnold Pedrigal, Peachy Bretana, and Bernardo Bernardo inspired by the quote, started the
Million People March to Luneta August 26: Sa Araw Ng Mga Bayani. Protesta ng Bayan. event on Facebook.
And props to Occupy Wall street for the organizational approach:
Though the brainchild of Pedrigal and several others, he is the first to admit that the protest event has no formal organizers, possibly taking inspiration from the Occupy Wall Street Movement in the USA, which was loosely organized.
"There is really no formal organizing group. This is a non-partisan event, where we would like the Filipinos to vent out and voice their feelings and sentiments towards the Pork Barrel system." Filipinos in South Korea
In the spirit of Cardinal Jaime Sin, who condoned participation of Priests and Nuns in the 1986 People Power Movement that ousted the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle ... rumored to have been candidate for Pope ... added his criticism to the Pork Barrel Abuse:
The CBCP said Tagle broke into tears when he dared politicians and other personalities linked to the “intricate web” of corruption to visit the poor and slum areas.
“Who will not be shocked with these reports and with the magnitude of money involved? ... It’s like your heart is broken into pieces. Can one really do this to one’s neighbor? Can one really stomach causing this kind of damage on the country?” he said.
Tagle said those accused should get a feel of how the poor live so that they would know how to spend the PDAF properly.
Tagle has been known to champion the interests of the poor and living simply. GMA
The call for People Power went out, and the Filipino People answered. Though the Million People mark wasn't reached, thousands of Filipinos protested against the Pork Barrel, some wearing
pig masks, across the Philippines including an
estimated 60,000 in the Luneta Further
virtual support was given by Filipinos from Hong Kong, the United States, Sweden, to Saudi Arabia.
President Benigno "NoyNoy" Aquino III got the message loud and clear from the Million People March and seeing political storm clouds on the horizon issued P10-million bounty for any information leading to Janet Lim-Napoles' arrest. Within hours of the bounty being announced, and fearing for her safety in the wake of the protest backlash, Janet Lim-Napoles, the business woman at the center of the P10 Billion Pork Barrel scam turned herself into President Benigno "NoyNoy" Aquino III on Wednesday, August 28 ... two days after the Million People March.
The fate of the Senators and Congresspersons involved with the P10 Billion Pork Barrel Scam is yet to be determined.
As an interesting postscript to the story, the incarceration of Janet Lim-Napoles at a jail in Makati took a ironic twist:
MANILA, Philippines – Should Janet Lim-Napoles be jailed in Makati City, it would be the supreme irony.
She might just share a cell with a former maid, whom she had put behind bars after allegedly setting her up for qualified theft.
In February this year, Cadelina Domingo, Napoles’ maid for 10 years, was arrested for stealing and has since been detained at the Makati City Jail in Guadalupe, Rappler learned.
~snip~
Domingo reportedly decided to leave Napoles’ employ because she could not keep up with household chores anymore.
Every day, after finishing her tasks late in the evening, the maid would be asked by Napoles to give her a massage from the time she arrived at around midnight until the wee hours. Domingo would be able to sleep at 3 am, only to rise again early morning.
“She wanted to go home. Hirap na hirap na raw siya sa trabaho (The work had become too burdensome for her),” Baligod quoted the other former Napoles househelps.
When Domingo sought permission to go back to her province last February, Napoles gave her blessing and even gave her cash and gifts to bring home to her (Domingo’s) relatives.
“Janet gave the maid her bonus. They stuffed her bag with other valuables as a farewell gift,” Baligod said.
However, before the maid reached the gate of Dasmariñas Village in Makati, where the Napoleses are reportedly renting a house on Mahogany Street, Napoles had tipped off the guard that Domingo had stolen from her employer and was trying to escape.
The subdivision guards stopped Domingo, searched her belongings, and naturally found the cash and gifts that Napoles had given her.
Domingo has been in jail since for qualified theft.
Rappler
So, to sum up, through it may still be hard to do anything about the weather, the Filipino People have proven, yet again, that People Power is a great way to seed the clouds for beneficial change ... maybe that's a lesson we should all try to learn.
Thanks for reading ... Mabuhay!!!!