Is it for the country’s good?

A number of my thoughtful friends assure me that President Aquino means well. They say that going after the Arroyo government and its friends is all part of his program against corruption. That it was what he wanted to do with his Executive Order No. 1 but the Supreme Court stopped it for being unconstitutional. The unconstitutionality comes from what the court described as selective justice which is forbidden by the Constitution.

Angered by that decision and holding the awesome powers of the executive in the Philippines, he proceeded to dismantle all institutions that would get in the way. In other words, he decided on a revolutionary government after an election (a dubious one at that) and implemented martial law government without declaring martial law.

Being young and impetuous, without any experience in administration, a lackadaisical record in lawmaking, he is in charge of a country of 90 million people, most of whom are poor, without homes and desperately in need of jobs. You don’t have to be an economic analyst to show that this cannot be done without foreign investments and technology. Yet we are a rare country with a Constitution worded to shut out foreign investments and technology.

Despite the glowing terms of praise from some foreign financial institutions (that have managed to imperil the world economy) that is the bottom line. We have an incompetent oligarchic government that shuts out direct foreign investments and without batting an eyelash says that foreign investors are clamoring to get in because the Philippines is the next tiger. Hmm.  

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This is the background for Roberto Ongpin’s persecution. His bank accounts have been frozen and he has been barred unlawfully from taking up directorship in a bank. It is not surprising. If he has been singled out for punishment by the Anti-Money Laundering Law (AMLC) that is all there is to it.

He has been friendly with the Arroyo government. That is his first sin. Had he been friendly with presidential candidate Aquino and waited to do any business or investments until he was elected Ongpin would have escaped unscathed.

So all that exchange of accusations between the Central Bank of the Philippines and Ongpin is balderdash, a game of nonsense and trivia. Any reason would have been found by AMLA to freeze his accounts.

Remember that the AMLC was successfully used against former Chief Justice Renato Corona in his impeachment. It has been politicized and made a weapon against those who did business in Arroyo’s time.

The Anti-Money Laundering Law (AMLC), amended in 2003, was meant for organized crime and global terrorists using the banking system. But the rules were changed and expanded to accommodate other uses for the law, for example against the government’s perceived enemies.

Never mind if Ongpin conformed to all the requirements for borrowing from DBP. Nevermind if he prepaid the loan and the DBP made money.

Given the politicization of the AMLA, Ongpin became fair game and to hell with rights and the law. Excuses and reasons will be found so that the public can be misled that Aquino was doing something “good.”

The siren song of anti-corruption has lured many to believe that any means including defying the Constitution and the rule of law were good for the country. That is the question. (Shades of what happened in Pol Pot’s Cambodia. Many have regretted his good intentions but it was too late to stop it then).

This is a good time to recall the same dilemma faced by the President’s mother who was urged to take short cuts through a revolutionary government.

“Meanwhile, the woman who never wanted to become president buckled down to work. Her first priority was the restoration of democracy, but she went about it in a counterintuitive way: she abolished the legislature, declared a revolutionary government, and appointed a 50-member commission to write a new constitution. Cory and her advisers felt it would be too difficult to work with a parliament that was beholden to Marcos in the task of restoring democracy. In theory, a revolutionary government could do whatever it wanted, but Cory was careful not to go down that road. “I was governing alone and I could have had all the powers, but I did not take them,” she points out. “I always abided by the Bill of Rights and I was committed and definitely dedicated to the rule of law.” — from Corazon Aquino’s blog.

Listen to that Mr. President.

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After Pablo in December, the strongest typhoon to hit the country, let us check what is happening to its victims. When we hear stories of desperate hungry people from the distance of Manila it is hard to imagine what they are going through. There are stories about recruiters buying despair for slavery and victims who have to beg for food in the streets. Grief pervades the towns with some 500 dead and hundreds more homeless and misplaced.

I know that PRC’s Richard Gordon has been on top of the situation. I have asked him to give this column an idea of where we are now in aid to Pablo’s victims.

There is aid flowing from many sectors including several countries but the question is how to bring food and relief convoys “through roads that had been blocked or swept away by floods and avalanches of rock, logs and mud.”

We thank local and international contributors and hope these go to the victims.

From Fernando Pena, he says the Republic of Estonia, a former Russian territory and now considered as the European Union’s most IT advanced country, allocated 50,000 Euros in aid for victims of Pablo.

One of the first to come forward was the Chinese embassy. Ambassador Ma Keqing gave more than $200,000 in cash as Chinese government assistance to the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines. The Red Cross Society of China had earlier donated $30,000 to the Philippine Red Cross.

Japan gave a whopping P22 million.

Embassy of Japan’s Minister for Economic Affairs, Akio Isomata gave the relief goods to DSWD Secretary Corazon Soliman.

It includes 300 tents, 3,000 jerry cans, 3,000 sleeping pads and 200 plastic sheets that will mitigate the difficult living conditions in and around evacuation centers. 

Most heartwarming and must be told are the aid efforts of miners Pusong Minero and the different mining groups in Mindanao.

Sagittarius Mines, Inc (SMI), through its corporate affairs manager Roy Antonio, said they have given a deed of donation to Philippine Red Cross Davao Oriental Chapter administrator Catherine Bijis. SMI, through the PRC and PMSEA provided relief assistance to victims.