ANL Sep-Oct 2013 Issue
Special Editorial Issue
Tumultuous Period
People’s
wrath and nature’s rage all but made September-October a tumultuous period for
year 2013—a year of the water snake; also
a year of the female specie as in “pork barrel queen” Janet Lim-Napoles; a year, too, of the water which was aplenty during the period swept by a record-total of six
tropical storm.
Amid
seething people’s protests against the callousness of government officials
prowling on workingmen’s hard-earned cash, armed uprising by members of Nur
Misuari’s spurned Moro National Liberation Front broke out October 9 in the
southern city of Zamboanga claiming over 200 lives and inflicting huge business
losses in three weeks of fighting.
Mother
nature seems angered too with the insensitivities of man. It sired six cyclones
including “Santi” that wrought havoc to Central Luzon. A
debilitating 7.2 magnitude earthquake shook up central Visayas October 15,
tearing down walls and towers of century-old churches in Bohol and Cebu
provinces and obliterating some Bohol towns with kilometers-long ground cracks,
dozens of sinkholes and landslides in several higher grounds. About 230 people perished.
Bohol’s famous Lobok Church in ruins after the October 15
magnitude 7.2 earthquake
Even
as the pork barrel [a.k.a. PDAF, or priority development assistance fund] scam
heats up,scores of other financial scandals involving government executives crop
up one after another proving only too well that the government bureaucracy is
one big syndicate bled with cash by
hungry political zombies headed no less by the chief executive of the land who
is hanging on tooth-and-nail to his trillion-worth pork barrel.
The
so-called DAP [Disbursement Acceleration Program] created in October 2011 by
the BS Aquino administration is a less-known or virtually hidden multi-billion racket
and milking cow of high government officials until media got wind of it October
this year. But with poor intellect and stubborn as he is, Mister Aquino on
October 30 went on primetime TV to defend PDAF as constitutional and the DAP as
no pork, miserably missing the point which is the people’s ire and dislike of
cheaters and robbers in chiselled attire stealing hard-earned people’s money.
Government-owned
and controlled corporations [GOCCs] like the National Livelihood Development
Corporation [NLDC], the Government Service Insurance System [GSIS], the Manila
Waterworks and Sewerage System, the government-owned gambling agencies PAGCOR
and PCSO, the health insurance system Philhealth, the billion-dollar earner
Malampaya Oil, to name a few, are virtual “private purses” of executives and
directors appointed and allied with the Aquino leadership in the form of “fat
bonuses and fringe benefits” exorbitantly high in the millions for each on
midyear and Christmas.
For
Aquino, revenues from billion-dollar earners Malampaya Oil and the giant gambling
institutions PAGCOR and PCSO are added to his pork with only him and no one
else in the discretion.
The
privately owned loan and pension system SSS [Social Security System] entrusted to government’s managerial hands wasn’t
spared by hungry wolves appointed by the powers that be to lead said agency. Our
very own Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle wept in one forum while tackling this sad
state of corruption in high places unique to this home called Philippines.
Then
there were more. If Janet Napoles holds congress and Malacanang palace by her
palm, then there was this multi-millionaire woman trader, Leah Cruz, who
monopolizes the onion and garlic industry from his undisputed influence
emanating from the Department of Agriculture headed by Secretary Procy Alcala.
A certain Ma’am Arlene holds sway at the Judiciary. So we have now three branches of government at the filthy
hands of shadowy characters all!
In
the face of all these, who will weep next? Certainly, not an offended people
and demeaned nature. Not for long. Not
when people and nature were forlorn, cheated and robbed. Not when “trapos”
[traditional politicians] say they never knew a Janet Lim-Napoles when the
truth is—for years in the works—she’s long been their good patron, ally, or
family friend all rolled into one.
The
century-old rebellion in Mindanao either by rebels or so-called “terrorists”
speaks for itself of a society, on the one hand, and a government-state, on the
other hand, clashing in opposition over their respective goals and class
interests. It even denotes a leadership that cannot even grasp clearly the
dictates of his/her country’s history.
Certainly,
mother nature is sore at its condition of wanton neglect and plunder.
Deforestation, typhoons, flooding and earthquakes can be mitigated by education
and preparedness, by government action and support, by less corruption, by
honesty and sincerity of leaders from top to bottom. But at the rate the so-called “mandated
public servants” are [mal]performing and
robbing people’s pockets, stagnation
prevails.
Then
can we pray: “Cometh not the most
tumultuous point when the angered and violated sought a payback!” eb . anl . sep-oct 2013
___________________________________________________________________________________________
[Nota Bene: Please see/read inadvertently
unpublished ANL Jul-Aug 2013 Issue at bottom of this newsletter by clicking
“Older Posts”].
E D I T O R I A L B O
A R D
MEMBERS:
Rudy D. Antonio [Canada Correspondent]; Engr. Silver
Casilla & RN Merly Grospe-Mayo [U.S. Correspondents]; Ronilo R.
Corpuz [Vienna Correspondent]; Fely Dumaguing-Malgapo [Milan Correspondent]; Engr. Joe
L. Sevilla [Asingan Correspondent]; Col. Lalin Layos-Pascual; Ross C. Diaz; Engr. Lorie
dG. Estrada; CPA Rod A. Layco; Wena Agaton-Balino [Photo & Lay-out Artist]; Ruben “Bencio” Balino [ Editor-In-Chief].
