The last few weeks have demonstrated that the work of President Noynoy Aquino is far from complete. He got into office with the motto: "kung walang korap, walang mahirap."
During the past three years, he has tried to clean up the government and has achieved breathtaking success in spots. But the pork barrel system has blindsided him. The beneficiaries of the system are overwhelmingly his allies in Congress. What to do? Does he go after his friends and risk being the pariah in Malacanang? What about his "kung walang korap, walang mahirap" slogan? PNoy has no choice. He must go after the pork barrel system. He must abolish it and replace it with a system that allocates funds to districts with the greatest need. No more direct allocations to NGOs. No more direct pork barrel allocations to congresspersons and senators. The guilty must go to jail. If the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court can go to jail for corruption, so must congresspersons and senators. Over here in the U.S. there is widespread sentiment that the way to reform the Philippines is to line them all up against a wall and, having eliminated the bad apples, to start all over. To start from scratch. That would not be necessary if PNoy follows through on his implied promise to clean up the stench in the Philippines, with the most odorous stench coming from the halls of Congress. PNoy is right in suspending the release of pork barrel funds. The next step is more important. Filipinos must find out which legislators have abused the system, and those legislators must be punished, and punished severely. The worst outcome is if Janet Lim-Napoles' head is the only one that rolls. I have long maintained that the ideal Philippines President is a 75 year old male who has cancer. Such a man can stare death in its face. For surely, any President who goes after the crooks in Congress is basically signing his own death warrant. Or, if he's lucky, he will escape death but his political life would be basically over. Is PNoy the younger version of that 75 year old male with cancer? We will soon know. Meanwhile, I wish I were in the Philippines today, for surely I would join the throngs of people who will demonstrate at the Luneta on August 26. If you can walk, ride a bus or a jeepney, or take the LRT, go to Luneta. It is a bigger deal than the first People Power revolution, because it will not be against one dictator and his cronies. It will be against the whole corrupt system itself. It is, potentially, your shining moment as a people. C -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Center for Good Governance" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/center-for-good-governance. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
