On the world stage, just as Putin has been turned into
a pariah and Russia is being canceled by invading Ukraine, so too, Marcos Jr.
and the Philippines could turn into a laughing stock by electing the dictator’s
son as its next president.
The Time Magazine banner could be worse than when PRRD
was elected president: “Why Did the Philippines Just Elect a Guy Who Jokes About
Rape as Its President?” I’ll hazard a guess for Time’s likely headline: “Why
Did the Philippines Just Elect a Guy whose Dictator Father plundered it as Its
President?” To ward off such PH infamy, Marcos Jr. -- the son of the dictator
who plundered the nation with $5-10 Billion ill-gotten wealth -- deserves shaming
and condemnation during this campaign period to put a stop to his ambition in
becoming the next PH president.
UN-INVENTED TRUTH
Wittingly or unwittingly, Marcos Jr.’s shaming and condemnation
are what being carried through by the essence of the CBCP’s statement in reply
to Marcos Jr.’s criticism of the Catholic Church’s “meddling in the politics.”
“The Catholic church is only speaking the un-invented truth
backed by records.”
On Truth, I found this striking anonymous quote on the
internet -- “Only three types of people tell the truth: Kids, the drunk, and
the angry." The Catholic Church is neither a kid nor a drunk. Being the oldest
institution in the western world that can trace its history back almost two
millennia with more than a billion faithful spread across all five continents around
the world, The Catholic Church, for sure, knows its mission like the palm of
its hand – particularly about the hotly contentious subject on separation of
church and state. The Manila Times columnist Antonio Contreras hit the nail on
its head:
“[T]he separation provision is to be construed as a
prohibition against the state to intrude into the exercise of religion and not
the other way around… This, however, does not prevent the individual churches
or religious organizations to have their own internal prohibition in accordance
with their doctrines and teachings.”
MALEVOLENT INTENTIONS
As regards such internal prohibition, the former CBCP
president, the late Oscar V. Cruz, D.D., issued a straightforward clarification
by replying to the question: Is there any case when the Bishops can authoritatively
order the lay faithful to vote for one particular and concrete option?
“Yes, there is, and the case would certainly be
extraordinary. This happens when a political option is clearly the only one
demanded by the Gospel. An example is when a presidential candidate is clearly
bent to destroy the Church and its mission of salvation and has all the
resources to win while hiding his MALEVOLENT INTENTIONS behind political
promises. In this case, the Church may authoritatively demand the faithful,
even under pain of sin, to vote against this particular candidate.”
(Underscoring mine)
What justified malevolent intentions have the Church
perceived behind Marcos Jr.’s political promises? The key to the answer is
embedded in the column of The Manila Times Tita Valderama “When Will Marcos Jr.
Stop Living a Lie?” as excerpted below:
“Marcos Jr. may have gotten away with the many lies
about himself in the past elections that he won. This time that he is seeking
the country’s No. 1 post, he must go through the proverbial eye of a needle.
Voters should no longer allow him to live a lie.”
LYING IS TO BE CONDEMNED
What does the Catechism of the Catholic Church say about
lying?
“’A lie consists in speaking a falsehood with the
intention of deceiving.’ The Lord denounces lying as the work of the devil: ‘you
are of your father the devil… there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks
according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies…’ Lying is
the most direct offense against the truth… By its very nature, lying is to be
condemned.”
Today, the Catholic Church is angry. It must be angry.
We, the people, must be angry.
Just consider this.
All over the world, anyone with internet access would
simply Google “kleptocracy” and would be able to read in a matter of 0.78 seconds
at the top of the list of more than 3 million results the following Wikipedia
content in only one click:
“Kleptocracy is a government whose corrupt leaders (kleptocrats) use political power to appropriate the wealth of the people and land they govern, typically by embezzling or misappropriating government funds at the expense of the wider population… One feature of political-based socioeconomic thievery is that THERE IS OFTEN NO PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT EXPLAINING OR APOLOGIZING FOR MISAPPROPRIATIONS, NOR ANY LEGAL CHARGES OR PUNISHMENT LEVIED AGAINST THE OFFENDERS… In a kleptocracy, corrupt politicians enrich themselves secretly outside the rule of law, through kickbacks, bribes, and special favors, or they simply direct state funds to themselves and their associates. Also, kleptocrats often export much of their profits to foreign nations in anticipation of losing power.” (Underscoring mine)
TOP KLEPTOCRATS
The German anti-corruption NGO Transparency
International released in 2004 a list of kleptocrats in order of amount
allegedly stolen:
1. Former Indonesian President Suharto ($15 billion -
$35 billion)
2. FORMER PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT FERDINAND MARCOS ($5
billion - $10 billion)
3. Former Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko ($5
billion)
4. Former Nigeria Head of State Sani Abacha ($2
billion - $5 billion)
5. Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic ($1
billion)
6. Former Haitian President Jean-Claude Duvalier ($300
million - $800 million)
7. Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori ($600
million)
8. Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko
($114million - $200 million)
9. Former Nicaraguan President Amoldo Aleman ($100
million)
10. FORMER PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT JOSEPH ESTRADA ($78
million - $80 million)
Interestingly, joining the BBM-Sara UniTeam, Estrada
has endorsed Marcos Jr.’s presidency: birds of a feather flock together.
The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG)
first chair Jovito Salonga estimated figure of $5 billion - $10 billion has
become the popular figure cited by Guinness World Records as the “largest-ever
theft from a government” in 1989 – a record the Marcoses are still holding in
2021. According to Wikipedia, among the sources of the Marcos wealth: alleged
diverted foreign economic aid, US government military aid (including huge
discretionary funds at Marcos disposal as a “reward” for sending some Filipino
troops to Vietnam) and kickbacks from public works contracts over a
two-decades-long rule.
COMMISSIONS OR “KICKBACKS”
I recall one battery commercial brand’s bunny -- clad
in sandals, shades, magenta fur, and equipped with bass drum – rolling through
ads with its evolving tagline, “Keep going and going and going …” Kickbacks
could have enough power to keep going, to last, well, maybe forever and ever,
as the following excerpts from the Senate press release have indicated on the corruption
in the DPWH public works contracts:
“It has become an open secret that commissions or
kickbacks have become the rule rather than the exception in the implementation
of public works projects involving not only some corrupt officials of the
department but some legislators as well.
“Fact is, contractors openly talk behind the backs of
these officials, changing the definition of “mabait”
and “maginoo” in the process:
officials from the executive and legislative branches who ask for “only” 10
percent are “mabait, maginoong kausap”;
and those who demand 20 to 30 percent are “matakaw,”
while those who demand advance payments and renege on their word as “balasubas” and “mandurugas.”
That’s the Filipino way of life.
SO SAD
And here’s the irony. Marcos Jr.’s camp has promoted and
credited to Marcos Jr. himself a long list of his father’s accomplished public
works projects, yet Marcos Jr. wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole the huge
kickback from each project and the gargantuan total of all the kickbacks at the
bottom line. Moreover, Marcos Jr. and his family had undeniably benefited from
the ill-gotten wealth, yet he has claimed no role in such ill-gotten wealth.
Ruben Carranza, a former PCGG commissioner, asserted
that during the trial (Supreme Court case ultimately declaring the Marcos $678
million Swiss banks’ deposits as ill-gotten wealth forfeited in favor of the
PH), it was Marcos Jr. who was made to answer questions on the contents of the
secret Swiss bank accounts (Marcos Sr. aka “William Saunders” and Mrs. Marcos
aka “Jane Ryan”?) – disputing the contention that Marcos Jr. should not be made
to answer for his father’s crime.
On the campaign against kleptocracy, Professor Jason Sharman wrote in “The Despot’s Guide to Wealth Management: On the International Campaign
against Grand Corruption”: "[D]emonstrating to victim populations [the Filipino people] that, sometimes at least, there is justice, and corrupt and tyrannical leaders can be held to account... [when] efforts to hold [kleptocrats] accountable at home have failed... I would argue that important symbolic
verdicts [like by the Catholic Church] of CONDEMNATION and SHAMING [underscoring mine] might be
achieved more effectively and far more cheaply.”
To chill out a bit, let me wrap up this heavy article with
a lampoon.
Party host: O,
pasok kayo. Wag nang mahiya. Tatay nyo kaaalis lang, walang hiya.
SOBRA NA. TAMA NA.
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