“Poor’ men (though moneyed now) fry; rich men fly (even get re-elected)”
The brilliant John Henry Osmena, in opposing the imposition of the death penalty, explained it would only make “poor men fry, while rich men fly.”
Last week, ICI commissioners and the DILG secretary showed to the media the newly completed dormitories where today’s sensational crooks will be detained. These cells are a far cry from the cramped and sub-human lodgings of ordinary prisoners languishing in our jails.
Last week too, the Sandiganbayan finally acquitted presidential legal counsel Juan Ponce Enrile and recently released Gigi Reyes over the Napoles-PDAF plunder cases.
One recalls the sad fate of the chief of staff of then senator Bong Revilla, Atty. Richard Cambe, the fall guy who eventually died while in prison. Revilla Jr. has been set free and was re-elected shortly after his acquittal.
Meanwhile, it is almost certain the district engineers and their subordinates will be detained in those new cells, perhaps some hapless contractors too who collaborated with them.
But what about the legislators who mangled the budget to provide funds for ghost and sub-standard projects to demand hefty cuts of “liempo.” pre-paid by contractors and delivered up-front by the DPWH personnel?
Yet one Zaldy Co, perhaps armed with a Maltese passport, is ensconced in some European villa or maybe a Caribbean hide-away, even a Colombian jungle, for all we know.
“Poor” men (though moneyed now) fry; rich men fly (even get re-elected).
Imagine if they are deposited inside Munti or our city jails instead of the newly built detention cells. Maybe they would rather fry.
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If PRRD or PNoy were president, what would have been the fate of the former “honorable” Co, “emperor” of Bicolandia who has flown the coop?
They would likely direct DFA to cancel his passport, regardless of the legal challenge such an act would make. Remember what PNoy, through Leila de Lima, did to GMA?
It was easy for the current president to cooperate with the ICC and shanghaied his predecessor to Den Haag, but he cannot act decisively against the escaped Zaldy Co, whose engineering and financial legerdemain now bedevils the entire nation in paroxysms of outrage.
From public works to pandemic supplies to obsolete laptops to an attempted monopoly of fish importation, alleged massive rice importations, to even E-gates at NAIA, Why, he even attempted to get the DOT to create a “son et lumière” spectacle that would have ringed Mount Mayon with lights, and even fence the approaches to it, “sacre bleu”!
Yet, as Mayor Benjie Magalong said, “he will not be allowed to return.”
What secrets leading to whomever higher would Zaldy reveal if he is faced with the prospect of being detained along with “low-life’s” in Johnvic Remulla’s custom-made cells?
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Will Ping Lacson’s resurrected Blue Ribbon investigation produce ex-Marine Orly Guteza and cross-examine his explosive revelation as delivery boy of Zaldy?
Guteza’s credibility was unfairly questioned by Zaldy’s Ridon, despite taking an oath before the Senate, just because the guy availed himself of a 24-hour service by a notary who probably should be disbarred for 7-11 notarial attestations.
Would there be some others in the woodwork waiting to corroborate the soldier’s claims?
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But who, aside from the “emperor” of Bicolandia could identify the legislators for whom they collaborated to deliver the huge “commissions” demanded by the providers of DBM-blessed “leadership funds” in the president’s budget, along with amendments called “insertions,” and on top of that, the release of unprogrammed allocations, whether “allocable or un-allocable” (in Tagalog, spell that as “alok-able” and “meron ng may-ari”).
Why not get the DPWH undersecretaries, retired or fired, to “sing” like canaries, those from planning to operations who supervised the RDs and DEs while their octogenarian secretary nodded in unquestioning approval?
These characters would make perfect “state witnesses” as they are less guilty than the legislators and even the DEs and their assistants.
It is likely they also got mere “royalties,” “pa-kurot-kurot,” just like the COA resident auditors and their DBM conscripts.
But their testimonies would be “nails in the coffin” needed to convict the real masterminds. That would de-populate Congress, which should be a good thing.
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Though much too late, the Supreme Court issued rules for extradition that require judicial approval before a Filipino is surrendered to a foreign state.
That will save Bato et al. who Trillanes and Conti are gleefully expecting to join the former president in Den Haag.
But the foul deed has been done to a leader who will not fry but cannot fly back.
