Honesty and treachery

Honesty. Police Inspector Libertad Teruel, and SPO2 Rene Infante, (both under the Negros Occidental-PNP), who returned P8.5M and P30,000 respectively erroneously given to them, are a very welcome affirmation that there are members of the Filipino race, and the police force, whose honesty and integrity cannot be bought. May the Lord bless them with good health, length of days, peace and harmony at home, and prosperity that they will get and recover through the lives of their children.

Perhaps, too, the Provincial Government can felicitate them through the pertinent resolution, beautifully framed, not that they need them, or that a resolution is anything, but so that their children and grandchildren will remember that they are descended from a stock of granite integrity and be mindful not to smear the good name of their ascendants. May this corner give its heartiest salute to Police Officers Infante and Teruel. May your tribe increase!

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Treachery. On the other hand, the country is also witness to a scene of an entirely different genre. The Union of Local Administrators in the Philippines, or ULAP in short, (or should it not be called "KULAP" as in "na kulapan" or blinded?), save for a few memberss, are very excited with the proposition to do away with the 2007 local elections in order to prioritize the shift to a parliamentary form of government.

The ULAP is reported to be very much willing to spearhead a 5-million signature drive to propose a "people's initiative" to amend or revise the charter in order to achieve the abovementioned objective.

Why is this treachery? Because the move does not come from the people themselves, but from politicians who will directly benefit from the cancellation of the 2007 polls. There is a certain shamelessness in this state of affairs that should enrage people, I believe.

Second, because it peddles the lie that for this country to progress, we must forget burning and screaming moral issues of the day (Hello Garci, graft and corruption in government, jueteng, etc.), declare them as "closed", and quickly shift to the parliamentary form of government, as if it is the latter move that will save this country from the morass it is in.

Third, because it is engineered by people who have well-known presidential ambitions but who cannot win a popular election, and whose idea of good government is to control the affairs of the state by the sheer megalith of the party. We have seen the ugly, shameless, skunk-like behavior of this Mafia when they killed all three impeachment complaints in Congress, with absolutely no remorse even when they are interviewed on national T.V.

These are the same people who have yet to clear their names over so many scams, and now they present themselves as saviors of the country by asking to be given BOTH legislative and executive control of government through the parliament. They are not happy and satisfied with just legislative powers, they also want executive fiat at the same time.

That is why I call this treachery, a shame.

Of course, the grand bribery is the offer to ULAP of "no-el", so that politicians do not have to seek a fresh mandate (read: do not have to spend for new elections), but stay on for three more years.

This is an unmitigated shame.

And what does big business have to say? Perhaps, go for "no-el", too, because that means they will be spared from having to contribute to the coffers of politicians and political parties. They will have "stability", which is so important for the economic giants. If this eventually becomes the stand of big business, I guess the moral justification for a people's revolt would have been laid.

We watch and wait for what the church will say, especially that today, its position seems to be to leave politics to politicians, except to holler a few burps here and there on moral grounds. We thank God for a few brave men of the cloth who have not retired their prophetic mantle.

I was thinking, if we make policemen like officers Teruel and Infante become leaders of government, I think our country will prosper. But if we make our politicians become policemen, I think we will become a banana republic in no time. Even the chimpanzees would be ashamed to call us their brothers.*