The price of justice is eternal publicity

By Alex P. Vidal

“There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts.”—Mahatma Gandhi

WE won’t get tired of writing about the titanic public infrastructure scandal that hit Iloilo in recent memory primarily as our moral obligation and indispensable duty and contribution to democracy.

In this valiant crusade, no one should lose steam, enthusiasm, energy, and fire in the belly.

We’re referring to the defective P680-million Iloilo flyover otherwise known as Ungka flyover (UFO) in Pavia, Iloilo, a project of the Department of Public Works and Highway (DPWH) that has inconvenienced both the motorists and residents in the city and province of Iloilo.

Given the magnitude of the controversy and amount of public funds involved (P250 million more is needed to repair the project), we can’t help in the Fourth Estate but sustain the publicity until drastic measures have been taken by authorities concerned like the Office of the Ombudsman, the Lower and Upper chambers of Congress, intrepid and independent “fiscalizers” in the LGUs, members of vigilant and incorruptible civil society.

They must be willing to perform a patriotic duty and doggedly pursue the investigation, file appropriate cases against the wrongdoers, and seek justice for the offended taxpayers.

Media, the court of last resort in terms of check and balance, play a major role in exposing the irregular dealings by government functionaries and their subalterns and should continue to provide unwavering torchlight to the benign public.

There should be no catatonic 180 degrees turn even if spin masters and backdoor PR stunts all of a sudden enter the picture.

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In the absence of vigilance from anti-graft agencies and swift moto proprio investigation and prosecution, the price of justice is eternal publicity.

There should be no more room for indolence and submissiveness on the part of those empowered to scrutinize government transactions now that perpetrators of this grand chicanery think they can get away with murder after sensing that local officials and self-styled anti-graft crusaders have failed to step up the avowed cry for accountability and justice.

We understand why some merchants of transparency and purveyors of justice turned languid and feeble in the face of overwhelming public outcry for culpability on the part of the DPWH and the flyover project contractor.

Either they are beholden, in one way or the other, or stacked against odds in the face of the multiple Goliaths (shady DPWH bigwigs, 10-percenter politicians, shrewd and truculent contractors).

But the hottest place in hell is reserved not only for those who refuse to take sides in this professed moral and ethical crisis, but also for those who refuse to acknowledge that a malfeasance of epic proportion has unraveled and there is a need to stand in unison and not to backtrack against influential and powerful personalities behind this incredible corruption and negligence.

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As of this writing, my hopes of recovering the item I ordered from the eBay, one of the world’s oldest and most recognizable ecommerce platforms, which went “missing”, were getting dim.

I placed the order on May 19 and was notified it was up for delivery on May 26.

On May 26, Friday, I received an email notifying that the item, an Apple MacBook Pro 13, with United States Postal Office (USPO) track package #9405508205497960628890 “has been delivered front door/porch at 12:44 pm” at Elmhurst, Queens.

When I went home on May 29, Monday, the item was nowhere to be found. I checked with the person in charge of our letters and packages in the apartment and it yielded a negative result.

I immediately contacted the eBay and waited for any reply at the Starbucks. After three hours, eBay replied, but its email only made me feel more somber and dejected.

I have been a regular eBay client for four years now. I have made more than a dozen transactions with eBay from headphones, earphones, laptops (four Lenovo brands and another one Apple MacBook Pro in April), wallets, caps, a clock, watches, laptop bags, knapsacks and they were all successfully delivered.

In 2018, I lost a very valuable and expensive Bose speaker also delivered by the USPS.

The additional Apple MacBook Pro 13 was the second item I lost.

Moral of the story: no more online shopping, at least for the time being.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)