Pardon this old man for being cynical about where all the angst and anger will eventually bring us. We all want some people, preferably high-ranking politicians and bureaucrats as well as free spending contractors to rot in jail. The odds are high no such thing will happen.
The Sandiganbayan was about to promulgate its decision on the 15 graft cases against Juan Ponce Enrile, his former chief of staff Gigi Reyes and businesswoman Janet Napoles but at the last minute announced a postponement. The clerk of court said something about having to deliberate on a “reflection” submitted by one of the justices in the division.
It isn’t likely that the Sandiganbayan will convict anyone with the stature of the 101-year-old Enrile. Gigi Reyes spent a few years in jail before she was eventually granted bail. A long list of legislators was linked to the scam but only Napoles is currently serving time.
The Sandiganbayan has so far only convicted one high official, former president Erap, who was promptly pardoned by then president GMA.
A few months ago, wth the public uproar on how Congress legalized their robbery in the 2025 NEP with insertions, I asked a former senator if it was still worthwhile expressing disgust about corruption. It seems legislators and bureaucrats have developed extremely thick skin. They can no longer be shamed by a public scandal.
The former senator encouraged me to keep on writing and more of mass media, traditional or social, should keep the pressure. Some may yet get wary of the potential public reaction if they get too greedy.
And believe it or not, there are more than a few of them who are uneasy about the system they found themselves in. These officials need encouragement to re-discover their personal sense of ethics and propriety before they were elected or appointed into office.
A mayor in a town in Cagayan posted on Facebook that politicians are corrupt not because they are greedy but because they feel poor. I know, it is a little hard to understand that observation. But coming from an elected public official known to have kept herself clean, let’s hear her out.
“I was with fellow mayors and other officials in a DILG seminar when the Discayas named congressmen and DPWH officials allegedly involved in massive corruption. As mention of billions in ghost flood control projects, Patek Philippe watches and Rolls-Royces flew about in the Senate, we sat at the seminar listening to the topic ‘Ethical Leadership.’ The bitter irony of it is hysterical.
“Our resource speaker, bless him, tried. He said to follow our personal virtue, and to do what we feel is right. I looked around the room and saw young, bright faces, and I thought ‘my God,’ what dangerous advice. Because in the vortex of politics, in the toss and turn and push and pull, if our anchor is only our personal values, we will all be swallowed whole.
“It starts in gatherings like these. As a new, fresh-faced politician, you approach the posh venue, and the fancy cars and long convoys on the driveway make you take a good, hard look at your 10-year-old Starex van. (After two or three times of this I usually just got off my old van 50 meters away and walked…).
“You walk into a hallway filled with hundreds of bodyguards and entourage, and you become uncomfortably aware of being alone…
“And so the seed is planted — nothing easily recognizable as greed, just the small, innocuous, almost laughable, highschool feeling of not being enough and wanting to belong.
“Then in the next years, the system tries to break and mold you. Someone from the DBM says, we will download a P20-M road concreting project, but with a 20 percent cut, are you game? If not, we’ll find someone else.
“PCSO says, we have an ambulance for you, but let STL in. No STL, no ambulance, no P300,000 per month pocket money…
“And, from the point of view of most officials of small towns in the province which do not have much independent revenue, there is a hard consequence to not playing the game — it strikes a blow to your governance, and ultimately, your leadership.
“You were elected to serve, but for being clean you are unable to provide big-impact service, while those who set aside their qualms bring home millions and billions of projects for their constituents and for themselves. And if you cannot provide for your constituents’ needs, what kind of leader are you? A weak, ineffective one…
“Most politicians start out good and want to do good. But many end up mired in a corrupt system bent on perpetuating itself by making politicians feel poor and inutile outside of it.”
From all indications, Mayor Tin Antonio of Alcala, Cagayan has managed to navigate the dangerous waters of Philippine politics at the local level without tainting herself of the corruption typical of many officials. She seems to be like Pasig’s Vico Sotto, QC’s Joy Belmonte, Leni Robredo of Naga and Baguio’s Benjie Magalong.
But there are so few of them. The system seems to be the problem. And our value system as a people needs significant change too… we idolize wealth even if ill-gotten.
How long can we sustain our rage against corruption? No, this time will not be different from the past. We must first see sustained citizen rage to transform our politics.
They will throw us some crumbs; some bureaucrats will be convicted and jailed. Maybe some rich contractors will be jailed too, like Napoles. But no high-level politician will be convicted of a crime that can only be orchestrated from the top.
Let’s make it different this time. Don’t let those officials who enriched themselves from our taxes get away. Failure to sustain rage dims our country’s future.
Boo Chanco’s email address is bchanco@gmail.com. Follow him on X @boochanco