The journey from hope to despair

ON DISTANT SHORE
By Val G. Abelgas 

Isn’t it ironic that an administration that was propelled to power on a promise of honesty and transparency should now stagger under the weight of suspicions of corruption and dishonesty? And isn’t it a pity that the people who were hoping to be liberated from decades of despair by this administration should now again become hopeless about their government?

Benigno S. Aquino III was overwhelmingly elected by the people in 2010 because, being the son of two highly revered democratic icons, he was perceived to be honest and credible and because he promised to be the exact opposite of the corrupt administration that ruled the country in what economic experts and political pundits called “the lost decade.” He promised to lead the bureaucracy to the straight path or the “daang matuwid” and to eradicate poverty by curbing corruption (“kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap”).

And yet halfway through his six-year term, the people are angry again, perhaps even angrier than ever because after being made to believe that finally, an honest and credible leader has come to liberate them from corruption and poverty, they are discovering that it is the same rotten bureaucracy and the same corrupt leaders that are running and ruining their lives.

As I said before, the trouble with hope is disappointment. The people are disappointed and they are showing their anger in social media and on the streets. President Aquino raised their hopes too high, and now appears to be abandoning them in favor of politicians, allies and the status quo.

In his first three years in office, Aquino remained unscathed despite numerous claims of corruption and inefficiency in various sectors of the government. The people were willing to give his revered family the benefit of the doubt when the names of the President’s sister and her husband were linked to an alleged $30-million extort try on a Czech firm. The people still gave him high ratings in surveys after surveys despite his perceived indecisiveness in various issues.

But now, the people even doubt that he was being honest about the surrender of Janet Lim Napoles, the businesswoman tagged mainly responsible for the alleged P10-billion scam involving the pork barrel funds. The people are no longer certain Aquino meant it when he said he would prosecute and jail all those responsible for one of the biggest and most infuriating corruption scandals in Philippine history.

In fact, despite his “too little, too late” promise to abolish the disgraced pork barrel system and to go after the pork scam culprits, hundreds of thousands of Filipinos still trooped to the Luneta and in various cities and Philippine consulates abroad to demand the abolition of pork and transparency in government disbursements.

When before the people were willing to give him a free hand in governance, they are now demanding that he account for his more than P1-trillion pork barrel, which is about half of the national budget, and that he give up this scandalously large discretionary fund.

Aquino’s credibility took a serious blow when amid the nauseating revelations of misuse and abuse of the congressional pork barrel, he continued to defiantly defend it, ignoring the fact that it has been the biggest source of corruption and political patronage in both houses of Congress for years and that at this time, the people are no longer wont to believe that any kind reform would stop its abuse.

Just days before the People’s March on August 26, Aquino suddenly took a turnaround and said it’s about time that the pork barrel be abolished. And yet, he did not abolish it outright as the people had demanded. Instead, he said the Priority Development Assistance Fund, the lofty name by which the porky fund was called, would be abolished and in its place, a reformed system would be in place. The same P200 million for each senator and P70 million for each congressman every year – a total of around P27 billion – but would be included as line items in the national budget.

The people only made fun of his pronouncement by volunteering funny names to replace the PDAF. Jokes are circulating in the internet about him, the pork, the senators and congressmen and Napoles. The respect is gone. In its stead, ridicule.

When at least 100,000 angry citizens showed up at the Luneta and hundreds of thousands more protested in various cities and consulates throughout the Philippines and all over the world, Aquino tried to douse cold water on the people’s blazing anger by announcing that the government is offering P10 million for the arrest of Napoles. At about the same time, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima floated the possibility of Napoles being a state witness.

Lo and behold, within a matter of minutes, Napoles’ lawyer, Lorna Kapunan, said her client was willing to give up as long as her security was ensured. And truly, within a few hours, Aquino aides fetched Napoles, accompanied by husband Jimmy and lawyer Kapunan, in a cemetery for the wealthy in Taguig to be taken to Malacanang and surrender personally to Aquino.

The President was then reported to have ordered that Napoles be brought to Camp Crame for processing and then to Makati City Jail for what turned out to be a few hours stay. Before one mosquito could even land on Napoles’ shiny skin in the Makati jail, though, the court ordered the high-profile detainee transferred to a more comfortable cell in Fort Sto. Domingo, the same cell where former President Joseph Estrada and MNLF chairman Nur Misuari spent their days while awaiting trial.

The house has two rooms, an electric fan, a refrigerator, a decent bed and a small desk, certainly amenities that may compare only to the maid’s quarter in Napoles’ mansions, but the transfer must have offered a sigh of relief for her because both Estrada and Misuari are now free and thriving.

There are even speculations – seemingly unfair, but not completely without basis – that Aquino had allowed the Napoles scandal to break out to destroy the integrity of known possible opposition candidates like Senators Bongbong Marcos and Bong Revilla and opposition leaders Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Gregorio Honasan, who were alleged to have the biggest amounts of pork barrel funds reportedly channeled to Napoles’ NGOs. It was also noted that the COA report that confirmed a series of articles in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, only tackled disbursements during the time of Aquino. Others have also speculated that Aquino allowed the scandal to break out to divert attention to the P30-billion extort allegations against her sister.

If the speculations were true, then it was another big blunder for Aquino because the people’s anger has now turned against him.

Despite the people’s demand for transparency and accountability, Aquino remains adamant about defending and justifying his and the lawmakers’ pork barrel and continues to ignore the popular clamor for him to certify as urgent the Freedom of Information Act, which would enable the public to be informed of government dealings. He continues to blame Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for the pork barrel mess, although later reports revealed that half of the funds diverted to Napoles’ NGOs were made from 2010 to 2012, Aquino’s first two years in office.

Another march, this time on EDSA where two people power uprisings overthrew two corrupt presidents in 1986 and 2001, is scheduled for September 11. I don’t think it would come to that, but President Aquino better weigh his options carefully on the pork barrel and the FOI bill.

It would be the height of irony for a President who rose to power on the promise of hope to be brought down by the people reeling from hopelessness and despair.

(valabelgas@aol.com)