You don’t need a seasoned political analyst to tell you that what goes around, comes around.
After the Office of the Ombudsman filed plunder charges against Sen. Rodante Marcoleta, the Circle of Maritess has given me a prophetic column title and topic – “Lahat kulong” or “Everybody goes to jail.”
Our streetwise readers believe that after Senator Marcoleta, 99 percent of today’s elected officials, along with several rich supporters and corporations, can now be targeted and charged with plunder in relation to campaign contributions.
This is based on the assumption that every other businessman, governor, mayor and barangay captain has, in one way or another, “made an investment” or given a campaign contribution to a political candidate, past and present.
If an actual investigation were to be seriously conducted, half of the business leaders and owners based in Makati, Alabang, Ortigas and Chinatown might have some serious explaining to do or need to hire lawyers and accountants to clean their books in advance.
But that is only one half of the equation. How many elected officials, past and present, could be charged with plunder and unexplained wealth related to campaign contributions?
There are even well-known governors and mayors who literally made a profit from unspent campaign contributions. I know of one presidential candidate and vice presidential candidate in the past who withheld campaign funds as “insurance money,” lost the election but added to their “secret millionaire” status.
As far as business owners, billionaires and millionaires are concerned, giving sizeable campaign contributions is part of business, an investment or a necessary expense.
Even if you don’t want to put money on politicians, many have no choice, especially when the thick-faced career politicians personally visit you at your place of business.
Jueteng lords have said time again that politicians who don’t even live in their town or area all come knocking before elections and asking for several millions. Yes, some actually state amounts in the millions.
The only good thing about the controversial plunder case against Senator Marcoleta is that it may become everybody’s excuse not to give money to candidates. It can also lead to future investigations on the present beneficiaries.
* * *
“Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, catch a tiger by the toe. If he hollers let him go, eeny, meeny, miny , moe.”
The rhyme refers to the classic children’s playground chant to choose who is “it” or “out” of the game. The rhyme is fun in the playground, but can we actually use it in real life, perhaps to catch the big fish in the Philippine sea of corruption?
Has anyone noticed that the people who had direct knowledge of the criminal activities and plunder done by CongTractors in the ghost flood control projects are no longer in the cross hairs of investigators or in the news?
If you want to catch a big fish, you must first catch a smaller fish, place a hook in its mouth in order to catch the big fish. As the saying goes, a fish is caught by its mouth.
But judging from how the government has been handing “Stay out of jail” cards to a few “state witnesses (SW),” many have wondered what the SWs have in possession or as evidence to earn the privilege of being a state witness.
Do they have a little black book full of names, time, dates and details of their dirty deals like Zaldy Co or the ex-marines who brought the Maleta? Are they really material witnesses or simply because they gave a refund of the money they stole?
All the inspections and investigations started logically, by beginning with the people who were supposed to build the flood control projects: the private contractors.
To verify their claims or possible excuses, the DPWH officials in-charge or responsible for the ghost projects were called in. Right now, the investigators have only caught fingerlings but no “bait” big enough.
Who is doing anything about holding the private contractors responsible for direct bribery, corruption and plunder? It is public knowledge that 99 percent of contractors engaged in the ghost flood control projects paid, gave, or delivered 20-plus percent of the project funding worth billions of pesos to project proponents.
The corrupt officials of the DPWH were conduits, messengers or advisors if not what we call middlemen who simply made “patong” or took a cut off everybody’s back.
So how come only a couple of private contractors are in jail, and not a single congressman or CongTractor exposed by media? Why not place all of the guilty private contractors in a police line-up, squeeze them and listen to them squeal on the proponents?
It is clear as day that the alleged proponents of the ghost flood control projects could only be members of Congress and the Senate because only they had the power of the purse.
So why is the DOJ and ombudsman targeting only the opposition senators and not actual players in Congress and CongTractors? All the documents, congressional budget records, etc. are public record.
Even social media outlets and personalities have been giving some of the best narratives and analysis, bravely exposing the crime of the century. And yet no one in the Marcos administration is catching a single real proponent.
Jesus asked: “He who is without sin cast the first stone.” Perhaps the foam truly rises to the top.