“Immediate acceptance of Usec Perez’s resignation without proper ‘due process’ exposes the underlying weakness of PBbM’s ‘crusade’ where optics is everything and truth-seeking is manageable’”
Two young legislators are training their guns on the present systemic dysfunction.
One is Kiko Barzaga, the “meow” gentleman from Dasmarinas upon Cavite.
His late father, Elpidio “Pidi” Barzaga was one of the early recruits of the then opposition coalition against the dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., recruited by Neptali Gonzales Sr. who later became DOJ secretary and Senate President.
UNIDO headed by the late Salvador “Doy” Laurel could hardly recruit oppositionists in Cavite, despite its proximity to Metro Manila, whichm along with Cebu, were the centers of dissent against authoritarian leadership.
By the time Ninoy Aquino was shot in the tarmac of the international airport, we could count on only three “volunteers” in Cavite, namely, Judge Isaac Tolentino of Tagaytay whose son Francis later became senator; Nanding Campos of Dasmarinas, son-in-law of former President Carlos P. Garcia, and law professor Pidi Barzaga.
The only time I met Kiko was in his father’s office in Dasmarinas, when I accompanied Yorme Isko Moreno who was then campaigning for the presidency in 2022.
He was quite forthright, surprisingly frank and un-customarily telling us in that brief encounter, that he was rooting for BbM, to the embarrassment of his father, the gracious host.
Barzaga is like a young, Gen Z version of Don Quixote, refreshing despite his meow-meow antics, bold enough to say the things that many out of misplaced politesse feel about the corruption that envelops the benighted land like a pandemic worse than COVID 19, infecting the house of horrors he is himself part of.
Would that our young people listen to Kiko’s unflinching message. It is their future that is at stake in this political “crusade.”
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“Crusade” too is how Secretary Vince Dizon calls what he understandably though undeservedly attributes to PBbM, as his mission – cleaning the Augean stables of the “rotten” DPWH.
Recruited for that “crusade” was one Arrey Perez who he plucked from a high-paying position in the private sector.
Last Thursday evening, I watched a press conference of the young gentleman from Batangas, Leandro Leviste, grand-nephew of the legendary Feliciano Leviste, who together with the illustrious Claro M. Recto and Jose P. Laurel were the revered political titans of the province, accuse an unnamed member of Dizon’s team as having talked with a contractor, something Leviste charged as unbecoming in Dizon’s heralded “crusade.”
Leviste even conversed over his phone with “someone” from DPWH without turning off his microphone, and later perorated on motherhood statements, this time for the media to hear, about reducing the cost of projects and fighting corruption.
Both the official accused of misdemeanor and the mysterious caller were unnamed.
I found Leviste’s conduct a bit unseemly.
Everyone was held in suspense at the “who” until Friday morning when he named USec Perez as the person whose credentials he questioned on the basis of unfounded allegations.
Weeks before, the young Leviste hogged the headlines when he caused the arrest in dramatic fashion of the DPWH district engineer who he accused of trying to bribe him with 3.1 million pesos in cash.
I found that a bit queer. “Hindi naman siguro ganoon katanga yung DE na ‘yun?,” I wondered, to have the effrontery of bringing a wad of “peanuts” to a billionaire congressman. Something for Ripley’s “Believe it or Not.”
Last Friday afternoon, while I was having coffee with a friend who knew some in’s and out’s in the present administration, breaking news came through my cellphone about the “irrevocable resignation” of USec Perez.
Then, listening to Secretary Dizon’s presscon later that afternoon, I could not get myself to agree to the “whiff” of gossip on his undersecretary’s character being reason enough to accept a “volunteered” resignation.
Are we not supposed to “investigate” first, follow the evidence wherever that may lead us, a trite avowal repeated by the ICI, the Ombudsman, the DOJ, and the President mismo, as they go through ministrations of ferreting out “truth” about this web of syndicated corruption?
Secretary Dizon himself vouched for Arrey’s character and integrity. No bidding has taken place because everything is under suspended inanimation at the DPWH, with all efforts directed at fault-finding still.
Were the would-be crooks fearful that Perez, being close to the new secretary, might head the bidding committees and foil their plans?
Delicadeza may have prompted USec Perez’s resignation, but immediate acceptance without proper “due process” exposes the underlying weakness of PBbM’s “crusade” where optics is everything and truth-seeking is manageable.
Meanwhile, Toby Tiangco, the legislator who exposed the shenanigans behind the Houdini acts in the bicam asks: “Why has the DFA not cancelled the passport of Zaldy Co?
Waiting for instructions?
