We would have started this column with a rather challenging line, that the late Vice President Emmanuel Pelaez uttered while being rushed to the hospital, wounded and bleeding after he was shot, pleading with the police general: What is happening to our country, General ? But we cannot say that anymore to General Alan L. Purisima because he, himself is being slapped with a six-month suspension by the Ombudsman. Besides, he is reportedly abroad (again). Perhaps he is the well-travelled PNP Chief in history. That, by itself, is not a crime. But how can one keep on travelling abroad while his own house is on fire?
The crime incidence has reached alarming proportions. Young girls are being snatched from their cribs and raped by drug addicts right in the noses of law enforcement units and men. Students and young children are being kidnapped in their own neighborhoods and soon, their cadavers are thrown or put inside sacks after having been molested and murdered by criminal elements who roam around in parks, alleys, and community open spaces. Criminals masquerading as taxi drivers or traffic enforcers are robbing people in broad daylight, subjecting citizens to endless miseries and vexations. And, all the time, the policemen are looking the other way or busy doing other things.
Calamities and disasters come and go, and some people make a lot of money out of funds for rescue, recovery, and rehabilitation. While thousands are dying of drowning or from storm surges, others make hay by stealing disaster donations and recycling relief goods. Volcanoes erupt, typhoons come and trample mercilessly on helpless people. Billions pour in forms of donations from all men of good will. But the victims still live in makeshift tents and temporary shelters after more than a year of bureaucratic inanities and red tapes, finger-pointing and a lot of ineptitude and lack in any sense of urgency.
The worst kinds of corruptions are those committed against victims of disasters and calamities. Corruption itself is the worst man-made disaster. And sometimes, lack of a sense of urgency has more pernicious effects than corruption itself. How can men and women who are entrusted with so much confidence and who project images of integrity commit such a despicable act of robbing the hungry with their only piece of food? Our country have been hit, devastated, if you will, their hopes wiped out by the fury of nature. But their own faith is assaulted by scoundrels and rascals who grab the only bread that would save their very lives, their only remaining faith.
What's happening to our country, General? The powers of thunder and lightning we can't prevent. The storm and the raging waves, the surging waters, we cannot stop. But, all these inhumanity of man against men, all these blatant acts of greed and ignominy, all these acts of betrayals of trust and treachery, can we not have a little respite from them all?