THIS LOOKS LIKE BRIBERY

Bribe It Was
By Antonio C. Abaya
Written Oct. 15, 2007
For the Standard Today,
October 16 issue



Is there no end to our despair, our despondency, our humiliation over our politics and our politicians? .

Some 190 congressmen and women were summoned to a breakfast meeting in Malacanang with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last Thursday, Oct. 11. At the end of the meeting, envelopes were allegedly given away to the attendees, each one supposedly containing P200,000 to P500,000 in cash., as "send-off gifts" or "a remembrance" or "help"(See the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Oct 12.)

In addition, each attending congressman and woman was allegedly promised pork barrel allocation of up to P70 million.

The cash envelopes were given away apparently without any vouchers to be signed by the recipients, without any indication from which department the (presumably public) money was coming from, without any instructions on how or for what purpose the money was to be used for, and without any indication that the amounts were to be accounted for or liquidated at a certain date.

In other words, each recipient was free to use the cash, partly or fully, for the coming barangay elections or other local community project, or for his or her own personal needs. Which would be a working definition of a bribe.

Especially since the cash were being given away just before a showdown looms in the Lower House over the possible impeachment of President Arroyo over the scandal-racked national broadband network project..

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that President Arroyo is buying the loyalty of some 190 congressmen and women, to either reject an opposition-launched impeachment resolution, or to support an administration- launched resolution deemed so weak and flawed as to suffer an inevitable rejection

Either way, President Arroyo would emerge unscathed for another 365 days, as only one impeachment resolution can be filed against a sitting president in one year.

At P200,000 per envelope, the total cash bribe to 190 congressmen and women add up to P38 million. At P500,000 per envelope, the total reaches P95 million. So between P38 million and P95 million in cash were given away by Malacanang last Oct. 11 to insulate President Arroyo from a possible impeachment for the next 365 days.

And it did not end there. In a separate Malacanang meeting that day, Oct. 11, this time with mayors and governors, more cash – this time in shopping bags - was given away to the attendees. There were said to be 200 attendees, 48 of whom were provincial governors and the rest city and municipal mayors.

Again, no vouchers or receipts, no indication as to where the money came from or what purpose or purposes it was to be used for, and without any accountability at all as to how it is spent.. Again, the working definition of a bribe.

At least one provincial governor – Fr. Ed Panlilio of Pampanga – revealed that he was given a bag containing P500,000 in cash. Fr. Ed says that the man who gave him the cash told him he can use the money for the barangay elections or for other barangay projects. (PDI, Oct. 14, 2007).

Or, if he were so inclined, he could use it for his own personal agendas, as other recipients of Malacanang's largesse no doubt would, if they had no moral qualms about it as Fr. Ed did.

The Inquirer (Oct. 14) revealed that two more (unnamed) provincial governors, both from Southern Luzon , have revealed that they received similar bags full of cash It is inconceivable that the 45 other provincial governors, or the city and municipal mayors in attendance, received nothing.

Malacanang apologists are stumbling over each other claiming that these were not public funds but were more likely private donations from businessmen friendly to Malacanang who want to help in the barangay elections. That's a lot of bull, and they know it.

It is more likely that these bundles of cash were sourced from the so-called Intelligence Fund of the President, which must now amount to a few billion pesos a year, and which are not subject to any audit at all, and which a sitting president can use to bribe or reward not only loyal governors, congressmen/ women and mayors, but also cooperating senior bureaucrats, military generals and Comelec officials

The office of the Philippine president is probably the most corrupting and corruptible political position in this part of the world. When an utterly immoral and manipulative person occupies that position, even the angels in Heaven and the demons in Hell can be bought. The Intelligence Fund of the President should be abolished.from the National Budget. Now!.

Fr. Ed has been quoted by the Inquirer as saying: "Since that was public money and it belonged to the people, I decided to take it and use it in a beneficial way. I couldn't be blind to the needs of my constituents. That's public money anyway. What will matter is how I would use it and I intend to use it to answer the people's needs."

He has turned the money over to the provincial administrator for safekeeping. "My conscience tells me that whatever resources came my way, as long as these came from public taxes and honest means, I will utilize these for the people….."

I hope his conscience will also tell Fr. Ed that, yes, these P500,000 came from public taxes, but they are being used as private funds by unscrupulous individuals in power to promote their private agendas, such as immunizing themselves from impeachment, and staying in power indefinitely, contrary to all the moral scruples that Fr. Ed. has come to symbolize.

With the hundreds of millions of pesos that his honest governance stands to earn in the next 12 months from quarrying fees alone, Fr. Ed does not need the sordid half a million pesos from Malacanang, which will use his acceptance of it to clothe its bribes to everyone else with some veneer of respectability.

But we do not know if Fr. Ed will become another co-opted Romulo Neri, or will choose to be the heroic moral leader whom Filipinos have been longing for for so long..*****

Reactions to acabaya@zpdee. net or tonyabaya@gmail. com . Other articles in www.tapatt.org and in tonyabaya.blogspot. com.