Corruption can be stopped through reforms

At least the City of Cebu is starting to move when it finally decided to move some 300 families living along the creeks in Sitios New Frontier, SanIsidro, Lahing-Lahing, San Vicente, Holy Name and Sindulan in Barangay Mabolo. How long can the City of Cebu make this move I can’t say. But in truth, we have been harping on this for many years now that these sitios are one of the reasons why our esteros are clogged up. When the strong rains come and the flash floods rush downstream, our streets get flooded.

Every now and then, whenever I pass by our esteros, you can see that most of them can no longer be accessed by our public works because there are just too many homes and shanties constructed beside it. This is why I laud the City of Cebu for finally getting its act together in moving those people living beside the creeks and esteros.

But let me be totally honest with you. What the City of Cebu is doing is a mere “Band-Aid” solution to an even bigger problem of clogging the esteros. What needs to be done is for the City of Cebu to get back the 3-meter easement along the riverbanks so that our DPEW could have some kind of elbow room in cleaning up our clogged esteros or creeks.

What should be prioritized are those shanties that were erected along the mouth of the Guadalupe River, the Lahug Creek or the Mahiga Creek. When these storm drains are unclogged, I’m sure Cebu City would have fewer flooding than what we experienced last week. This is what is known as a prevention program in anticipation of future disastrous flooding.

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The Senate probe on the perks of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has obviously disturbed a “Hornets Nest” that is now the talk of the town in many coffeehouses in Cebu and I’m sure this is the hot topic throughout the country. The revelation of Lt. Col. George Rabusa, former Budget Officer of the AFP, that former AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Angelo Reyes received a “Pabaon” of P50 Million has now opened a “can of worms” within the AFP Officialdom that was once only spoken in hushed tones within the AFP. This revelation puts a cloud of doubt in every AFP General who has since retired. Rabusa is expected to spill more beans against AFP Chiefs.

I’m sure that not all AFP Generals got a “Pabaon”, which is why we should dig deeper into this potentially explosive probe for the sake of cleansing the ranks of the AFP from corrupt officers. Lt. Col. Rabusa practically indicted AFP Chiefs Gen. Diomedio Villanueva and Gen. Roy Cimatu for receiving gifts of P10 million when they assumed the AFP Command. Hmmm, it reminds me of that US Navy slogan that declares, “Join the Navy and see the World”. In the Philippines I reckon our slogan should be “Join the military and become a millionaire!”

I’ve talked with a lot of people on this issue and it seems that the focus on this expose’ is against former Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) as all this supposedly happened during her watch. But in truth, we’ve already heard about corruption in the military since the time of Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos; after all, it was the best time for the AFP as almost every government post was held by a former officer or soldier.

Almost 25 years ago when the EDSA Revolt removed the Marcos Dictatorship, a lot of pundits concluded that it was time for the Military to “Return to the Barracks.” But I recall what my mentor, the late Sir Max Soliven used to write in his column in the Philippine Star entitled By the Way: “Don’t kid yourselves that the military will return to the barracks because of the EDSA Revolt… doing this is akin to forcing the toothpaste back into the tube after it has been squeezed out.”

This is the problem symptomatic in a country that drove out a dictatorship with a People’s Power Revolution. We did not complete our peaceful revolution, but instead EDSA restored the hated oligarchy. During the term of then Pres. Fidel V. Ramos, the Marcos cronies returned as the coast was already clear. This is why the Philippines is still a mess today.

We are seeing the Middle East version of the People’s Power Revolt that recently happened in Tunisia, which has now spread to Yemen, Egypt and Jordan. We Filipinos can say proudly say that “we’ve already been there and done that”. I don’t know if Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will fall this week in this very unique “Leaderless Revolt” but if there are no reforms that would be pursued, nothing much would change in Egypt. What’s happening in the Middle East should be a warning to the Aquino government that it must push for reforms; otherwise, we just might have another People’s Power Revolt against the weak Presidency of P.Noy.

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