Crooks, Inc.

By: Alex P. Vidal

“Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.” — Thomas Jefferson

IT seems so many anomalies and scandals are being committed in the government by dishonest, incompetent, and insincere public officials nowadays, and yet these anomalies and scandals were hardly unraveled or thoroughly discussed in public.

In most cases, the culprits were able to avoid prosecution by just tendering their resignation or by publicly professing “loyalty” to the administration and “admiration” to the president.

Once they have resigned, no effort was made to hold them accountable for the thievery they have committed while in office.

They have mastered the steal-now-disappear-later technique of amassing wealth at the expense of the taxpayers.

Once they have shown canine loyalty to the big boss, no one can touch them with a ten-foot pole; and chances are, they will be exonerated prematurely and even hailed and defended like Caesar’s wife.

The devils grow in number because Lucifer not only tolerates their shenanigans, but also protects them like endangered species.

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There were cases when instead of filing appropriate criminal cases against them, these good-for-nothing officials were only transferred to other offices, where they could continue their stealing binge like Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.

This is the reason why the government continues to decay and deteriorate; it’s a free-for-all for the vultures. Everybody happy; everyone is feasting on the bones.

Rascals and rapscallions are having a field day emptying the cookie jars, dancing and prancing like descendants of Limahong.

Crooks in public office recycle the machinery of graft and corruption in a massive scale using the same system that had impoverished the Filipinos in the past.

They are everywhere: in sports (look at how they ravish the SEA Games funds), in the PNP and AFP, in agriculture, in irrigation, in public works, in education, in tax collection, in jail management, in labor, in war-torn Marawi, in customs, among other departments.

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ANOTHER reason why no big-time grafter has been caught and punished in this administration, so far, is because of the apparent dearth of Benjamins or independent but intrepid whistle-blowers in the legislative branch that should be playing the role of fiscalizers and watchdogs in the name of check and balance.

Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Raul Roco, Teofisto Guingona, Blas Ople are gone.

Rene Saguisag and Francisco Tatad are no longer active in politics.

What we have now are a bunch of clowns, dullards, and third-rate Halloween characters who got elected for being popular, notorious jokers, killers, and womanizers courtesy of a decrepit electoral system responsible for the mass recruitment of idiots in the august halls.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)