"Why was I chosen? Until now I still cannot understand."
"Why was I chosen? Until now I still cannot understand."
There were plenty of occasions in my almost 70 years as a journalist for which I know I should be thankful. These were when I received awards from several institutions. Santa Banana, I was even given a doctorate degree!
But the most memorable event in my life was being chosen to be one of 20 communicants from Pope Paul VI. It was Sunday, Nov. 29, 1970.
And now Pope Paul VI has just been elevated into sainthood by Pope Francis.
Pope Paul VI, upon his arrival at the airport in Manila, was almost stabbed by a foreigner from the Middle East.
My encounter with the Pope took place at the Quezon City Memorial Circle before more than a million Filipino Catholics. It was eight in the morning. Can you imagine me, a simple periodista, receiving the Holy Eucharist from the hand of a future saint?
It was the late Monsignor Alfredo Reyes, parish priest of Philamlife Homes in Quezon City, who submitted by name to the committee tasked with choosing the communicants.
My wife, children and I had to walk some three kilometers from our home to the venue because the road was closed to traffic at that time.
To this day I still can’t believe or understand how I was chosen.
* * *
I have always maintained that it is almost impossible for any president, even one like President Duterte, to eradicate graft and corruption in government. Corruption has become so embedded in everything the government does.
At the Bureau of Customs, for instance, so long as there is human discretion and intervention in the entry, examination and valuation of imports, there will always be corruption. Human beings have feet of clay. If the opportunity is there, it will take a saint to resist temptation.
This is why I say that no matter how the President overhauls Customs, it will remain the most graft-ridden agency.
The same goes for other agencies where there is human discretion and intervention. At the Bureau of Internal Revenue, for instance, so long as people decide how much income tax should be paid, there will be corruption.
I am not saying that the war against corruption is an exercise in futility. What I am saying is that six years is too short a time to effect this change.
One point in the fight against corruption is that it takes two to tango. There is the briber and the bribed.
I know for a fact that almost all businesses have in their annual budget called “facilitation” or “miscellaneous” expenses in the millions of pesos. The time element of imports is crucial for businesses to succeed, and firms do not mind spending for it.
The system can swallow even the most honest and well-intentioned individual.
* * *
President Rodrigo Duterte says that when he meets Chinese President Xi Jinping, he will remind him of the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration that was favorable to the Philippines.
But even if he raises this issue with Xi, will the latter even listen?
If he does not listen, we would be back to where we started. Actually, I am sure he will not listen. He has already succeeded in peddling what Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said as the biggest fake news of the century. Almost every Chinese citizen has been conditioned to believe that the South China Sea is part of China.
The only thing we can do is to convince our Asean neighbors that China’s policy of nine-dash line is illegal.
* * *
I repeat the urgent need for our government to focus on the creation of the Department of Disaster Resilience, which was passed during the 17th Congress at the House of Representatives.
With all the typhoons and cyclones hitting the country one after another, and with so much devastation of agriculture, infrastructure and livelihood, an ad hoc body like the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management just is not enough.
I urge the 18th Congress to make this bill a priority.
* * *
During the first two years of the Duterte administration, the Department of Finance came out with a study to privatize the 49 casinos of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. I find this absurd. While Pagcor is the regulatory body, it also operates casinos. We may be the only country doing this.
The privatization of Pagcor casinos can give it additional revenue. There is no reason for Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez to still sit on the privatization.
* * *
Newly elected Senator Bong Go should make up his mind—to remain as aide of the President, or to do his job as a senator.
We see Go still following President Duterte wherever the latter goes. Maybe Go needs to be reminded that he is now a senator and no longer an alalay. This is an insult to the institution that he represents.
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