Few closures

“We have two kinds of politicians. One is the incapable. And the other is capable of anything.” That's graffiti smeared on a Paraguayan slum wall. But it pretty well describes this country as 2008 wobbles to a start.

Underwhelming competence was one of Joseph Estrada's ( a.k.a Jose Velarde ) signature traits. Over five years of detention, for admitted plunder, didn't improve it any. His body language now screams a 2010 run for Malacanang. Panfilo Lacson, on the other hand, is capable of anything. Scan his credentials: from the tainted PMA class '72 to Marcos' torture chamber, otherwise known as the “Military Intelligence Security Group” and PNP chief for Estrada.. He too would be president.

“When I was a boy. I was told anybody could be president,” the great barrister Clarene Darrow once said. “I'm beginning to believe it.” But does Manny Villar. And Loren Legarda. And Dick Gordon -- plus a score of knuckleheads. Count me in, insists Senator Mar Roxas.

“Amidst the revelations of incompetence and pettiness by many of his colleagues, ( Roxas ) rose above the fray and was quoted numerous times by some of the best minds of the country as one ‘who had the firmest grasp of the issues and on finance and economics' inherent in the ZTE contract.”

This is a no-period-no-comma- 51-word overkill. Roxas should cashier his PR flacks if they wrote this pap. No, says “Philippine Journalism Review”( November issue) : ABS-CBN broadcaster Korina Sanchez did. Oh? “It appeared in the Cebu-based paper: “The Freeman.”

“It is no secret that Sanchez has a romantic relationship with Roxas,” PJR Reports added. “When ( Sanchez) took the position up of news anchor, in ABS-CBN 2's late night newscast ‘Bandila', she said would not handle any news report about Roxas. She ( was ) aware of….conflict of interest.”

Print is not exempt from ethical strictures that bind broadcast. Sauce for goose should also be sauce for the gander. This track record may partly explain why there are few closures here. And we're always moving on the next scandal .

Thus, an examination of basics, specially at the start of a new year, is essential. “The unexamined life is not worth living,” Plato reminds us.

Has the probe, for example, into the Palm Sunday killing of 31-year old Indonesian priest Fr. Franciskus Madhu, SVD, as he prepared for Mass, petered out? He was sixth religious killed in Upper Kalinga . Victims included a Catholic nun and an Iglesia Ni Kristo minister. The suspects, Nestor Wailan, Joel Awingan and Acmor Bonggawon, just sauntered away.

In Cebu City , vigilantes executed 182. Or is it 183? Mayor Tomas Osmena hasn't nailed one killer. The U.S. State Department singled Mayor Ronaldo Duterte's Davao and Cebu places where “esquadrones de la muerte” enjoyed impunity. There were 147 murders in Davao in just one year.

Will President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, in 2008, replace her tinny vows to protect human rights with at least one – ONE – conviction for rouge military responsible for “disappearances”? Will Rep. Teddy Casiño & Comrades prove respect for human rights by denouncing at least one – ONE – salvaging by NPA hit squads? “The death sentences imposed by their ‘people's courts' provide only a veneer of legality for what is really vigilantism or murder,” UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston wrote of NPA “justice.”

Remember the 12-year-old unsolved killing of Philippine Navy Ensign Phillip Andrew Pestaño? asked the Manila Mail in Washington and the Philippine News in San Francisco . Senate Report 800, submitted by the late Supreme Court chief justice Marcelo Fernan, debunked the Navy claim, issued within 24 hours of Pestano's death, that this 23-year old officer committed suicide. Instead, it found Pestaño had been murdered, aboard RPS Bacolod.

This graduate from Ateneo and PMA bucked attempts to load illegal logs and shabu on the navy vessel. And the Military Ombudsman took all of 12 years before it half-heartedly asked the suspected gunman to submit his affidavit. “Kawawa ang Bayan,” the Mail said.

It's been over five years now since Girl Scouts of the Philippines funds ended up in the personal bank account of then Representative Clavel Asas Martinez and others. But Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, who concentrated all powers in her office, hasn't released findings of the completed investigation.

Has Gutierrez checked if Mega-Pacific heeded the Supreme Court ruling to return over P1.3 billion for vulnerable computers it sold to the Commission on Elections? Last we heard, Mega-Pacific sued the computer experts who quoted the Supreme Court decision on this scandal.

And what is she going to do about the long refrigerated former Justice Secretary “Nani” Perez case as well as the computer scandal probe in Lapu-Lapu city?

The Commission on Audit says 61 offices, under the President, accumulated P615.3 million in unliquidated advances. That's only part of an old picture of deadbeats. Back in 1996, unliquidated cash advances already ballooned to P1.06 billion. From barangay captains up, officials milk treasuries for cash advances at every turn. If Mandaue City is an indicator, only 7 percent bother to settle.

Some officials siphon so much of taxpayer's money, they can afford to look poor. If government did nothing else but suspend salaries of those who IOUs stacked up, 2008 could well end as a banner year.*

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