What this nation needs is a systems change!

The alleged Janet Napoles Lim scam involving some P10 billion of the so-called Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) a.k.a. pork barrel funds has now entered its third week hogging the national headlines and it is now crystal clear that the Legislative Branch of the Philippine government has totally refused to investigate what seems to be the biggest scandal ever over the use or misuse of taxpayer's money. Right now the P10 billion scam is nothing but a media circus, a sort of a reality telenovela for Filipinos to savor and make tsismis in the coffeehouses of the country.

We just had a massive electronic cheating perpetrated by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) with the use of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) which came up with that infamous 60%-30%-10% in favor of the Liberal Party, UNA and the rest in that order. Yet the Filipino nation is nonchalant, albeit apathetic about this cheating to ensure that the political elite of this nation would keep their elective positions so they can go on stuffing their bank accounts with the people's money.

At this point, I'd like to remind our youth, especially those of you who were not yet born when the EDSA People Power Revolt happened 27 years ago, that the Filipino people were outraged by the profligate and lavish lifestyle of Imeldific Marcos. The opposition then painted a really ugly picture of the Marcos dictatorship, which was, of course, mostly true, while the rest was just idle tsismis. But all those rumors permeated into the national consciousness and caused the Filipino people to go to the streets in righteous indignation against the Marcos dictatorship.

The situation today is similar to the last few years of the Marcos dictatorship, where the profligate lifestyle of Super Ma'am Imeldific has incensed the minds of the Filipino people. But never mind, during the conjugal Marcos dictatorship, at least the corruption was focused within the Marcoses and his cronies. But 27 years after removing the Marcos dictatorship because of corruption, corruption has gotten worse even under the leadership of Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, III. What is appalling to many of us is that Ms. Jeane Lim, daughter of Janet Napoles Lim, has been out on Facebook with her lavish lifestyle, using monies allegedly from the pork barrel of our congressmen and senators. It really makes your blood boil!

Without a doubt, the biggest source of corruption is the so-called pork barrel and it offends our sensibilities that this is the same Legislative Branch, which a little over a year ago ousted a sitting Chief Justice of the Supreme Court CJ Renato Corona, would not agree to investigate this latest P10 Billion scam. Shame!

The senators and congressmen were quick to investigate the alleged ZTE-NBN, which was only an attempted corruption deal. But the Legislative Branch refuses to investigate this latest scam? Now a new group that calls itself the Former Senior Government Officials (FSGO) has openly issued a call to all Filipinos demanding that the Office of the Ombudsman conduct an impartial investigation of the P10 billion scam. But so far, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales has gone on a silent service, as if she has not been reading the newspapers or watching the TV news on this alleged scam.

If the Ombudsman refuses to act on the petition of the FSGO, then what options are left for the Filipino people? Should we go back to the streets? I think not! We've been there and done that. The EDSA Revolt can now be called a total failure because by deposing the Marcos dictatorship and replacing it with those power hungry political elite and their own set of cronies, it has only prolonged the poverty of the poor Filipino people. What this nation needs is a systems change whereby we need to usher in a new set of political reforms.

I was asked last year to talk before a group of people on what reforms were needed for this country. Allow me just to name a few of the reforms I gave the group. My first reform is totally dismantling the Comelec and replacing it with independent Comelec on a regional basis. This way, the Comelec would no longer be ruled by one man like what is happening today under Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes, who has shown only zero transparency. Then all electoral cases would have the ballot boxes opened in front of the city or municipal hall to determine who really won.

A second reform is the total overhaul of the barangay system of governance. Under this kind of reforms, we will only be voting for your barangay captain who doubles as your city or municipal councilor. Of course barangays must be realigned according to size and population. Of course we will also abolish the Sangguniang Kabataan and thus saving billions in funds. These are just samples of the reforms our nation direly needs.

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