The evil that men do (and women too)

In this country, justice is still compartmentalized, even if the President himself tries to give an example of walking along a straight and narrow path.If Janet Napoles were a poor worker from B, Rodriguez urban  settlers, or a vendor  from Carbon Market, who stole a thousand pesos from a neighbor, he would be forthwith arrested, booked for theft, investigated and thrown to jail, if she could not put up a cash or bail bond for her temporary liberty. But the mighty Janet has managed to  amass billions in cash and assets, she could easily elude the arms of the law. And she could easily buy her way out. For all we know, she is already in the Carribean now, laughing her way to the banks.

If that LTO director, who was seen on you-tube gambling in the slot machine, were a poor public school teacher who played tong-its, she would be immediately suspended for a conduct unbecoming of a civil servant. But since that powerful lady is a close friend of the President, a shooting buddy, in fact, there is a deafening silence from the Palace. It was precisely this same lady who allegedly dared to defy her former immediate boss, then Transportation Secretary  Ping de Jesus, a highly principled public official. De Jesus had the good sense to quit because this lady supposedly goes directly to the President, by-passing the  good Secretary.

If Ruffy Biazon belonged to another party, if he were not a former Congressman from the lone district of Muntinlupa, his resignation would be immediately accepted, given the utmost exasperation that the President felt against the Bureau of Customs. As head of the much maligned agency, which got a very biting and harsh tongue-lashing by the Chief Executive, in his last SONA, that good son of Pong Biazon should have accepted full responsibility for all the Customs “kapalpakans” and “kapal mukha”, instead of passing the buck to the men below, if he understands the meaning of command responsibility. But he is a member of the ruling party and a leader should not bash his own team mate.

If the Senators were just rank-and-file workers in the bureaucracy, who did not liquidate a few hundred pesos of cash advances, they would be subjected to grilling, investigated, suspended and ultimately ousted and perpetually disqualified from holding any elective and appointive position, with total forfeiture of all retirement and separation benefits. But the Senators would get some millions as a Christmas present from the Senate President. To exacerbate the injustice, the honorable solons need not submit any receipt for liquidation. A mere self-serving certification would suffice. They ousted a Chief Justice for a SAL-N gobbledygook, why don't they apply the same sense of righteousness to their own selves, in the name of the billions of pork barrel ?

The greed, the lust and the gluttony and all the cardinal sins of men and women are nothing compared to the injustices that those who wield powers inflict upon the poor and the powerless. The rich and the influential, those who control all the powers and the wealth can bend the law to suit their whims. The poor and the voiceless will be arrested and thrown to prisons, for the slightest misdemeanor that may vex or disturb the serenity of the powerful. The evil that men do continue to make the world, more cruel, more dangerous and more inhumane. The crumbs of the earth are thrown away, tramples upon and swept away. They are nothing to the society of the moneyed and the strong.

Oh, judgment, to quote Shakespeare, thou art fled to brutish beast. And men have lost their reason. I must pause then for a reply.