THEIR days are numbered, we are told.
We refer to the personalities against whom cases will be filed in connection with the massively anomalous flood control projects.
The warnings began when the new Quezon City Jail in Payatas was showcased to the public. There will be no need for petitions for hospital arrest because the facilities there would be adequate, we were told.
By Dec. 15, we were also told, there would be personalities behind bars.
In fact, warrants of arrest will be issued very soon against Sarah Discaya and other lawmakers, among others.
It is true that the public is waiting to see bigger personalities behind bars. Thus far, the only people thrown in prison are less known, or unknown, employees of the Department of Public Works and Highways.
We wonder what must be going on in the minds of those anticipating their loss of liberty in the next few days. The immediate results will be difficult — separation from their families, deprivation of liberty and comfort, and the humiliation of being paraded and taken mug shots of like a common criminal.
If they are guilty but if they acknowledge their wrongdoing, they would bow their heads in shame and feel genuine remorse for what they did. They would dread the next few years and beat themselves up for that moment when they decided to cross the line and give in to temptation.
But if they are guilty and are simply incredulous that they could be arrested, even just for show, they would continue to mock the system. They would continue to insist on their innocence, confident that people’s memory is short and justice deeply flawed, and that they could soon go back to their ways.
So whose days are numbered, really? Is it the supposedly independent body tasked to investigate infrastructure projects? In the past few months we have seen that despite high hopes in the beginning, numerous imperfections prevent the Independent Commission for Infrastructure from achieving its lofty objectives. The questions — what do we do, now that we have a better idea of the enormity of infrastructure corruption. Shall we pass a law giving such a body teeth, or do we write everything off as a lesson that proved too costly? Was its creation just a means to pacify the people’s anger?
In the end, we ourselves are running out of time.
The battle against corruption runs the danger of getting commonplace, repetitive. There looms the specter of defeatism and fatigue. Some may feel that the problem is too big, the officials too powerful, and the system too rotten.
It is up to the people, whose well being is compromised and whose taxes are being plundered, to see this battle to its rightful end. We should never waver despite distractions and frustrations. The alternative is just too painful, too tragic.
