The Corona Impeachment Trial

The impeachment trial in the Senate of the present Chief Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court is currently the focus of attention of Filipinos nowadays. It has drawn opinions and comments in the social media and in the press, TV and the airwaves. This is a proof that Filipinos have become media savvy, as they are participating in large numbers in the drawing up of a majority view.

It can be asserted that the trial will have two results, one being official coming from the decision of the senator-judges. The other result will come from the people who are watching the televised impeachment proceedings and monitoring its developments on the daily basis in online newspapers, TV news broadcasts and the radio reports. The second one is not official and will not have a bearing on the outcome of the trial. However, the people's choice will always linger for years to come. Anyway, it is a conclusion that should never be disregarded. Therefore this is the reality of this trial. Two conclusion will be drawn, and the best result is definitely when the two results are one and the same.

Problem will arise when one result is different from the other. This is a problem in the sense that the issue of whether CJ Corona deserves to be in the Supreme Court still will never be resolved. There will always be mute protests on his ascendancy and continuing stay as Chief Justice. Be that as it may, the democratic process of impeaching a constitutional official has been sustained on this one. Ours is really a country of laws and not of men. We are ruled by rules and procedures and we follow the Constitution. This is much a huge result of this impeachment event. Even though the crescendo of arguments and disagreements continue to occur, it is still the democratic process and the fact that we are a democratic country that will define the legacy of this impeachment trial. We are all the better for it.

Support of Congressional Hearings Needed

The Filipino people should continue to support the on-going Congressional hearings to unearth the truth about corruption in the military. What began as a hearing on the plea bargaining agreement of Garcia has mushroomed into an expansive hearing on corruption in the military. In the height of these hearings, a former chief of the AFP, Angelo Reyes, who's possible involvement in the "pabaon" system in the military as exposed by a former employee in the comptroller's office of the AFP, was being unearthed by the Blue Ribbon commitee of the Senate, committed suicide in a cemetery where his mother is buried.
There must be serious repercussions on the testimony of Rabusa, the star witness presented by Senator Jinggoy Estrada. Why would this suicide occur except as an offshoot of the stress and the pressure brought about by the investigation on possible involvement of high-ranking military officers in the AFP in the misuse of funds for the military? The best step that every one should take in the light of this event is to slow down for about a week and then push through afterwards so that there will be a closure and the institution of the AFP will be protected and restored. Also, calls to abolish the PMA as an offshoot of this investigation should be shelved as it is counterproductive to abolish a military school that has produced able individuals who are leaders in peace time and in the battlefields to protect the country from security threats foreign and domestic.
The Filipino people should stand behind its Senators and Congressmen who are trying to find out the truth behind the mess in the military so that they will come up with needed legislations to reform the AFP and protect it as a well respected institution in Philippine society. The whistleblowers who continue to stand their ground despite "demolition jobs" of people who stand to lose in the investigation, should be supported by the entire Filipino people since these few individuals are the only links of the country to unearthing the truth about the misuse of public funds in the military.
As the saying goes, the truth will set us free.

How to Confront Rising Crime Rate

The Philippine National Police and the Aquino government for that matter are right now more than busy fighting the surging criminality in the country. The rising crime rate has definitely affected the peace and order situation and gives the impression that it is not safe to live in the Philippines. Despite the emphasis that the government has put on attracting tourists into the country, the daily surge of all sorts of crime against lives and property will dampen this effort and might eventually bankrupt the tourism industry in the country.
The government should now focus its effort in devising a plan or plans to reduce the crime rate. The proliferation of loose firearms is one major hurdle that the PNP must overcome in order to eradicate the incidents of killings and robberies connected with the use of powerful weapons. Also, the fortress that is built around private armies in the regions must be leveled by the national police so that these private armies can be disarmed and neutralized. Gun licenses must be restrictive and should only be issued to private individuals based on the extreme needs for protection and security. Rampant issuance of gun licenses without checking on the applications should be stopped and discouraged.
CCTV cameras should be a requirement on businesses, banks, shoppings and other establishments where the incidents of all sorts of crimes are rampants. Major streets and highways must also be equipped with CCTV cameras to discourage acts of criminality.
Budget allocations for crime prevention must be doubled so that police authorities will be able to modernize its weapons and equipment in its fight against well-established criminal syndicates and gangs. Intellligence-gathering and effective investigation activities of the PNP and the NBI must be well-funded and manned or order to complement the crime-fighting operations of the government.

And Now...More Corruption Scandals...

The military establishment is now under fire for charges of corruption. The House and the Senate, in separate hearings, have uncovered shades of corruption where government funds numbering in the millions could not be accounted for. There is no end in the number of cases being discovered by the government and Congress relating to graft and corruption committed by former government and military officials of the Philippines. This is shameful.
While the country is wracked by bus bombings, carjacking cases, carnapping and kidnapping cases, killings, crime wave that will not dissipate, higher food prices, higher toll fees, etc. here comes the revelations of missing funds intended for reimbursing costs of field operations of Philippine soldiers.
What's next? Hopefully, there will be no threat of coup or de-estabilization drive against the government of Aquino to prevent him from pursuing the guilty parties in this new corruption scandals in the military. A retired bishop has mentioned that there are two groups salivating to grab power in the country today. If the bishop is serious in saving the country from undue chaos, he should come out and name names. Otherwise, he should avoid further comments relating to the stability of the country.
Evidently, the accused will fight back in order to protect his reputation. The accusations of graft and corruption was done in a Congressional hearing, not in the court of law. More often than not, this is right now a trial in publicity, as no formal charges have not been filed by government prosecutors through the Department of Justice or the Ombudsman.
This is the unfolding drama in the country today. Indeed, it will be a waste of time and money if nothing comes out of it, just like past hearings and accusations which, even with the presence of whistleblowers, did not send any big fish to jail.

Really Stopping Jueteng

To stop "jueteng", a marching order must originate from the President himself. P-noy must come out in fighting mood and order his PNP and DILG top brass to end the operation of jueteng all over the country. He must be the one who should lead in convincing the public that the days of jueteng lords are over. He must issue the marching order to make jueteng an illegal act that will send anyone involved, including the bookies or "kubradors", in jail.
If there is no marching order from the President, the police force and the DILG officials, including the mayors, congressmen, governors and other government officials, will get a dubious signal from Malacanang and will just continue to engage in jueteng operations. Now that President Aquino enjoys a high trust rating from Filipinos, it will not be difficult for him to get the cooperation of every Filipino to eradicate jueteng.
If President Aquino continues to display a lukewarm attitude on the government's jueteng drive for whatever reason, then the scourge of this illegal numbers game will spread and neutralize whatever headways the government has achieved in other sectors of society. Inaction and half-hearted attitude towards the drive to stop jueteng will bring disgrace in the Aquino governance and wll eventually derail his crusade against corruption and poverty.

Ways to End Poverty in the Philippines

The Philippines is one of the countries in Asia with the highest percentage of poor people. It is obvious that those countries, the Philippines included, are deeply saddled in a morass of bureaucratic corruption. Thus, there is sense in the strategy to remove corruption as a problem in government before launching programs to end poverty. But there is a drawback to this strategy. It slows down the momentum to serve the poor. Corruption meansures are on-going and it does take time to haul all corrupt officials and their accessories to court and mete out the necessary justice. Thus, it is incumbent for the government to get bolder and pour millions of pesos to poverty-ending tasks that aim to provide an opportunity for every Filipino to experience the basic amenities of life and get out of poverty, pure and simple. And what are ways to accomplish these?
The government should continue with its conditional dole-outs of money for its identified poor families, for this is a noble effort to reach out to the poor in society and let the public money benefit those people in the poverty line.
Also, the government can tap international financial institutions, including the United Nations, whose main work is to alleviate world poverty by pouring in millions of dollars to developing countries to improve the lot of their citizens. The Philippines is still a Third World country. It should get easy approval from international programs designed to help end the poverty curse. Poverty-ending projects like cooperatives, livestock and food production, handicraft production, food banks, rural road projects, and other small-scale projects can be started in villages and small towns all over the country with the help of these international agencies. The Philippines must accept that it is still a developing country after all these years due to corruption that is endemic in all levels of its bureaucracy and which has created a deep division between the haves and the have-nots in Philippine society. It should therefore continue to look to international agencies for help in terms of grants and loans to help the poor and bring them at par with the rich in enjoying even just the basic amenities of life.
Vital to these projects to end poverty should be the continued efforts of government agencies concerned to generate jobs for its jobless poor, provide a place and build simple shelters for its homeless poor, create more educational scholarships in high school and college levels for the children of poor parents who, without those free-schooling opportunities, will render them tied to a future of endless poverty.
The government should also ask its people to practice volunteerism and help its poor countrymen. It must assert that the success of government programs for the poor still rests with the full coperation of its citizens. It must encourage private institutions and agencies to re-focus their programs to help the poor and the homeless in society. It must reward individuals and groups who take extra effort to assist the needy citizens through tax incentives and financial assistance.
And a lot more projects for the poor are just waiting for the government to lay its helping hand on. And since a sincere and straightforward President is currently at the helm of power in the country, there should be a rosy future at last for its poor citizens.

The Hostage-Taking Fiasco Shouldn't Cripple the Aquino Presidency

Granted that the hostage crisis of August 23 came to a disappointing end with the loss of eight lives. Granted that the Aquino government failed miserably in responding correctly to the crisis. But this tragic event should not cripple the work of the Aquino administration to save the country from corruption and extreme poverty. Critics of Aquino are crying for blood by asking the President to make the extreme sacrifice and ask those heads of agencies and offices responsible for the hostage fiasco to resign. Aquino already accepted responsibility. That should be enough.
President Aquino has a lot of tasks at hand that might be imperiled by this seeming propensity to search for sacrificial limbs to recover the prestige and honor of the country in the light of accusations from all over the world that there was negligence on the part of the Philippines in saving the hostage victims. It seems that the country and its leaders have focused their attention to do everything to appease the prying eyes and end the ridicule that Filipinos are now facing from foreigners due to the events of August 23 at the Quirino grandstand, where a dishonored police officer commandeered a tourist bus and killed some of its occupants when his impossible demands were not met. This should not be the case.
The response that the government has made so far should be enough to prove to the world that the Philippines is sincere in its acceptance of blame and it has been apologetic to the families of victims of the hostage-taking, as well as to the government of Hongkong province, on the actions that the hostage-taker Rolando Mendoza committed as well as on the lapses of the police force in responding to the crisis.
Otherwise, the Philippine government should now turn its sight on the crusade to haul corrupt officials, smugglers, and other bad elements before the hall of justice and make the money that will saved from this crusade benefit the Filipino people through infrastructure development, health benefits, educational reforms and poverty-ending projects. This crusade cannot suffer the ningas-cogon mentality that has felled many a good crusade by the government. Aquino has just less than six years to make good his promise to eliminate corruption as the cause of the impoverished conditions in the country. The events of August 23 should not derail or cripple the work and dedication of the Aquino administration to bring the needed blueprint of a clean government into full implementation. In addition, P-noy will need all the heads of his Cabinet to help him achieve this. He should therefore not listen to critics who are suggesting that there should be resignations from his government resulting from the hostasge crisis fiasco. Aquino should know better.