EDITORIAL - Where’s the sense of shame?

The highest rated television show these days is the live coverage of the Senate hearing on the jueteng scandal. When a blackout hit Luzon last Friday, Filipinos switched to radio to keep track of the hearing. For senators, the hearing of Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson’s accusations of corruption against President Estrada has been a golden opportunity for public exposure. It has also provided an opportunity for the President’s allies to try to discredit Singson and weaken his story, which has been considered credible by Church leaders including Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, the opposition and other sectors.

The President isn’t lacking in defenders at the Senate. Two of his defenders, however, should not be participating in the Senate grilling of Singson. At the start of the jueteng scandal, Senators Tessie Aquino-Oreta and John Osmeña admitted accepting P1 million each as balato or gift from Singson in April last year. The two announced they were returning the money after their names came up in a ledger that Singson presented to the Senate, listing those who purportedly received money from jueteng proceeds. Singson tried to give the two a graceful exit, saying the money did not come from jueteng but from a mah-jongg game on the presidential yacht where he said he won about P50 million and Mr. Estrada P120 million.

In a land where millions of people live below the poverty line, the idea of winning P100 million in one mah-jongg session is obscene. It becomes even more obscene when the high-stakes gambling is done on the official yacht of the President of the Republic. Oreta and Osmeña, however, apparently saw nothing wrong with this, and did not find it strange to receive gifts worth P1 million each. Don’t say there ought to be a law – there are anti-graft laws that limit the value of gifts public officials can receive.

After virtually corroborating part of Singson’s story, Oreta and Osmeña cheerfully rejoined pro-administration senators in trying to destroy the governor’s credibility. Have our national leaders lost all sense of shame? These two senators should be investigated themselves for those "gifts" which they claimed they intended to use for their pet projects. Even their belated decision to return the money, with P200,000 interest each, is not enough to clear them. At the very least, they should have the delicadeza to inhibit themselves from the investigation of the jueteng scandal.