This is one trend that must be sustained.
Peter Laviña, campaign spokesman for presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte last year, was fired last week as administrator of the National Irrigation Administration amid allegations that he was asking money from people doing business with the NIA.
President Duterte refused to give his friend a graceful exit, denying Laviña’s story that he had resigned and was not fired.
Over the weekend, the President vowed that more heads would roll as he makes good on his promise, often mentioned in his speeches, that “this government will be clean.”
The vow has been met with skepticism, especially when he is seen hobnobbing with individuals linked to corruption. But the firing of Laviña, with the President stressing it was over corruption, raises hopes that he means business.
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One disappointment for some Duterte fans is his refusal to use some version of Oplan Tokhang against plunderers. He never promised death for the corrupt, he stressed.
Perhaps he’s just being practical. As the resistance at the House of Representatives indicates, death for plunderers could decimate the ranks of lawmakers and, for that matter, much of the political establishment.
People have not forgotten the “truckloads” of documents presented by officials of the Commission on Audit at the height of the pork barrel scandal, implicating nearly 200 lawmakers in the fund scam. If cases are pursued, the amounts involved warrant an indictment for plunder, which requires at least P50 million, rather than simple corruption. Many of the 200 are still holding public office.
Dirty Rody can kill 7,000 drug suspects and there will still be so much more where they came from. His modest estimate is that there are about 600,000 drug personalities in the country and “I cannot kill them all.”
He doesn’t mind that the thousands killed so far under Tokhang and Double Barrel include many barangay officials, watchmen and auxiliary team members. Now we know why he had the barangay elections postponed.
But he can’t easily replace crooked public officials in case he puts at least the 7,000 most corrupt on a hit list and has them gunned down “one by one” by motorcycle-riding men.
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Now that plunder has been removed by the House of Representatives from the offenses that will warrant capital punishment, perhaps Du30 can give the Department of Justice the green light to vigorously pursue the pork barrel cases.
Never mind the testimony of pork scam whistle-blower Benhur Luy, who seems to be on his way to being discredited as a state witness as the administration taps his nemesis, Janet Lim Napoles, as a witness against “bigger fish.”
Who might be bigger than the accused scam mastermind? All guesses point to the same individuals, but let’s wait for a formal announcement from the administration.
The COA in fact implicated more lawmakers than Luy, based on what the auditors said were extensive audits and documentary evidence. A handful of those initially named cited glaring mistakes in the COA report, but most have remained silent, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Dirty Rody should tell government prosecutors, who are under the executive branch, to drop the other shoe.
There are people still hoping to see at least one plunderer get what he or she deserves – as the President has described the fate that befell some of those who have fallen in his vicious war on drugs and criminality.
After all, he has vowed to wage a war against corruption. If shabu fries a person’s brain, corruption, he says correctly, destroys a country.
But for now, plunderers are safe from both Tokhang and capital punishment.
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The case of Laviña should remind the President that it’s the system that encourages corruption and therefore needs an overhaul.
From Day One Duterte had publicly warned his friends that he would not hesitate to part ways with them if they were found engaging in corrupt deals.
Not every public official, however, is insulted when offered a bribe or a chance for a kickback. Since not even a thumbprint is affixed to a crooked deal and payoffs can be made overseas, an enormous amount that an official can never hope to earn legally in his lifetime can be irresistible.
Loopholes in our laws against tax evasion and money laundering reinforce the belief that officials can get away with corruption.
When huge amounts are involved, an official of modest legal means can also take a long-term view and think of retirement and mortality.
One prominent individual, for example, who built a solid reputation for several decades as an honorable, clean public servant was widely believed to have accepted dirty money in the twilight of his years from someone who is still on trial for large-scale corruption.
In a nasty argument with a friend who was disappointed with the corruption, the former public servant reportedly explained that he wanted to have enough to ensure a comfortable life for his children upon his death, which eventually came.
Such individuals also consider the weakness of the judicial system in pinning down anyone for plunder. By the time a final verdict is handed down, the crooked official could long be dead and the dirty money laundered into legitimate businesses.
A former supporter of Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo once lamented to me that it was so easy for even a brilliant and well meaning public official in this country to be swallowed up by the system and make compromises that go around or break the law just to get things done.
President Duterte knows the problems and should use his still immense popularity to coax his political allies to implement the necessary reforms.
Our rules make it so easy to break the law and so tough for the lawbreaker to be punished.
It should be the other way around.