Corruption cannot exist without a corruptee!

Our special presentation tonight, we have a discussion on what Pro-lifers are doing after the Reproductive Health (RH) failed to pass in Congress with the Task Force for Family & Life TFFL). While you can say that this was a victory by the Pro-Lifers, these people aren’t sitting on their laurels because they know that the RH Bill will resurrectin the next Congress.  We are dealing with money here, lots of money from lobbyists from the United States seeking to sell their contraceptives!

The TFFL Group just had its national summit exactly a week ago mapping out plans on which candidates to avoid and which candidates to vote for in this coming May 2010 polls. Electing the pro-RH sponsors like, Sen. Miriam Santiago, Liza Maza, Satur Ocampo etc. They have also narrowed down whom we should be voting for President. In a mock election at the end of the Summit, Villar got 32 votes; Gibo Teodoro got 28, while Noynoy Aquino got 10 votes. So this should give you an idea where the Pro-Lifers’ votes are going.

We did this interview at the newly-opened Citi Park Hotel and with us is Mr. Douglas Gacasan, President of TFFL in the Visayas; Mrs. Ching Calub, TFFL Coordinator for Mindanao and Mrs. Fenny Tatad, Executive Director Bishop’s Legislator’s Caucus. So watch this very interesting show tonight on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00pm.

* * *

Surely by now you already know that one of the biggest problems this country faces is unabated corruption. Like what I wrote before, everyone pins the blame on the Arroyo government, yet corruption is so pervasive in Philippine society because everyone does his or her share in “greasing the palms” of corrupt officials. Corruption after all cannot exist without a “corruptee.” Indeed, corruption can be stopped if everyone stops giving bribe money and I mean everyone.

Enter the US State Department who recently chided the Philippine government for failing to implement the law imposing criminal penalties for corrupt officials that encouraged graft practices with impunity. A case in point is the infamous C-5 controversy that has hounded the campaign of Sen. Manny Villar, which Sen. Villar insists “I did not steal anything.” Indeed, from the looks of this controversy, Sen. Villar didn’t steal any government money, unless he got what is known as the “usual” cut. 

However, if he did, then that is what we call graft, where as a Senator, he was able to move a road closer to his businesses, thus increasing their value many times over. This was an undue advantage that Sen. Villar had over the other land developers competing with his company. Now why couldn’t the Senate pin Sen. Villar in their ethics case is due to the numbers supporting Sen. Villar in the Senate. What they should have done was simply file a case before the Office of the Ombudsman. But then, that’s at the risk of being tagged as a political persecution. But like it or not, graft is graft and it should be filed!

But then what can we expect from the Office of the Ombudsman who has been sitting on so many celebrated cases and I’m sure a lot less than famous cases. The Office of the Ombudsman should allow their respective office branches like the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas to file cases without needing the approval of Merceditas Gutierrez. Right now, the famous cases here in Cebu like the Girls Scout Scam and the Lamppost scandal are still hanging years later.

In this election season, the Liberal Party (LP) is supposedly running on a campaign about “Good vs. Evil” yet they never came up with solutions on how they can stop this evil. I guess the reason for that is the people in the LP were once considered “Evil” when they were in power, which is why they want to get back to Malacanang so they can taste the evil of corruption once more! Indeed “Power Corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely!”

* * *

Lakas-Kampi Standard bearer former Defense Sec. Gilbert “GIBO” Teodoro Jr. was asked about his family feud with Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco, especially that Danding’s daughter, Mrs. Lisa Cojuangco Cruz is now openly campaigning for the Noynoy Presidency and their spin doctors are making a big thing out of it.

GIBO’s reply was, “We are talking about the country, not one family, not the hurt feelings of one person… And for the good of the people, I’d go for the Filipino people than the hurt feelings of a family. It does not have any effect on the life of Juan de la Cruz, or in my platform of government. It should not be an issue in a presidential election and I’m not going down to that level.” How true. While this has nothing to do with the campaign, it is our clearest proof that GIBO is not GMA’s man. He was seconded to PGMA in an alliance with the NPC under Boss Danding.

* * *

Email: [email protected]