For real or for show?

The Press is really having a field day in reporting the numerous crooked and shady deals happening in the government of the past and present administrations. Very much in the news right now are the scams, pay-offs and other shenanigans previously and currently happening in various government branches and agencies. Such coverage of the exposés really creates an immediate impact convincing a lot of people that P-Noy’s avowed crusade to end or at least reduce corruption in the government is making headway.

Indeed so many whistle-blowers are coming out now because they are emboldened by P-Noy’s  daring, open and repeated pronouncements that he will not tolerate the many corrupt acts and rotten transactions allegedly committed by past and present government officials; and that all of them will be prosecuted and sent to jail. His very recent warning to the entire workforce of the Bureau of Customs for the unabated smuggling in the country really stirred a lot of excitement and expectation that finally there will be an honest to goodness clean-up in our government.

But doubts and suspicions somehow still linger and cannot be completely erased in the minds of many people. They still believe that nothing concrete and substantial will happen to all this much heralded campaign against graft and corruption. People earnestly longing for the promised solutions to this problem still feel that the method and style of this administration in conducting and handling the whole affair indicate that everything will just end up in a lot of frustrations and disappointments.   

Immediately noticeable here is excessive Press coverage of the campaign. It appears that the fight against corruption is being conducted before the Press than in the proper venue where definitive, conclusive and binding results can be obtained. It seems that every move of this administration is primarily geared towards gaining more popularity and public acceptance of all its actions with P-Noy as the hero, very much like in showbiz. And so it seems that the campaign is not for real but merely for show, to create a good impression and to influence public opinion.

Of course it is good to be transparent and to keep people informed of what this administration is doing. But there is a proper time for telling them of its moves especially when it comes to this campaign against graft and corruption. Definitely it is not a good strategy to announce beforehand that they would file graft charges against a particular person. This is just like “shooting first and asking questions later” which may even backfire.

The worse aspect in announcing before filing the charges is saying even further that the cases they are going to file “are not weak because the evidence is solid. So if there are accused there will be punishment”.  This is a clear violation of the right of an accused to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.  The well established jurisprudence in this country emphatically proclaims that “mere accusation is not an evidence of guilt” and that prosecution must prove the guilt of the accused with evidence beyond reasonable doubt.

Besides, such an announcement may shape public opinion against an accused who is not yet proven guilty in court which alone is empowered to determine whether the evidence is strong or not. In the meantime the honor and reputation of some persons who may be wrongly accused will have been irreparably damaged already.

It may also influence and put pressure on the courts to decide according to the opinion of the President especially when it is backed up by the informal and unofficial assessment made by the people. In such a case, the accused may even ultimately be acquitted for denial of due process of law. Indeed so many cases in the past have ended that way.

Using the Press in the campaign against graft and corruption is also a clever way of diverting public attention on some exposes that may be more damaging to the administration. Right now, the Press seems to be focusing more only on the P10-billion pork barrel scam in Congress and the rampant smuggling and corruption in the Bureau of Customs. But there is another perhaps more sensational case previously exposed concerning the alleged payoffs made in connection with the sale of  MRT7 trains by a Czech supplier Inekon which has been relegated to the inside and back pages of the papers.

Whether true or not the growing perception is that limelight is centered on the “Pork and BOC anomalies in order to remove the peoples’ attention from the MRT7 payoffs until it is completely forgotten. The talk going around is that the administration is behind this move because the names of P-Noy’s sister, Ballsy and her husband Eldon Cruz have been mentioned in said case when their trip to Prague, Czech Republic curiously coincided with the talks then on-going between the DOTC and the company officials.

P-Noy’s sincerity in his fight against graft and corruption will indeed be severely tested here. To show that he really means business, he should order a thorough probe of this case even if the press coverage is lessened or totally withdrawn. In fact a news blackout is more conducive to an honest to goodness investigation.

The probers should dig deeper and move further back in time to find out the real score here especially because the various personalities and officials mentioned have connections way back during the regime of her late mother Cory when the “Kamag-anak” Inc. also became the center of attention. Several coincidences and connected events involving relatives and officials in the P-Noy government and that of her late mother Cory cited and talked about in the news and social media indeed raise a lot of questions that have to be answered.

In fairness to Ballsy and her husband Eldon and to P-Noy himself who is so concerned with his image of being “squeaky clean,” P-Noy should even create some sort of a “Truth Commission” composed of persons with proven integrity, intellect and independence. The investigation of the NBI, an agency of the DOJ under P-Noy will not suffice as it will be of doubtful credibility.

This is the best way to prove that his crusade is for real and not for show.

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