In the shadow of abductors

If I were a parish treasurer who gets away with habitual traffic violations by paying bribes to traffic enforcers using not my own money but that of the parish, then I am a lawbreaker, briber and a thief. But why call me a thief when I used the money to enrich traffic enforcers and didn’t keep any of it? It’s because, I spent and diminished the parish’s fund for my selfish interest of getting away with violating traffic rules.

Similarly, if I were a president who utilized public funds to buy SUVs with which to bribe bishops, purchased fertilizer for cities with no farmlands to bribe congressmen, criminally overpriced vote-counting machines to bribe a Comelec chief, and other scams that directly increased my chances of getting away with screwing the Constitution, then the funds I utilized for these things are funds that I have actually stolen. Wealth stolen and immediately spent or dispensed is technically wealth amassed that can add up to plunder.

Missing, unaccounted for, and misappropriated public funds directly translate into diminished tactical support and ammunition for our soldiers who safeguard our national security; diminished emergency, disaster response and prevention resources to preserve public safety; and diminished availability of medicines and medical services to maintain public health. It is therefore in the interest of national security, public safety and public health that persons under investigation for plunder be kept and secured well within the reach of our authorities and justice system until the plunder case is resolved. Suspending such individuals’ right to leave the country does not endanger everyone else’s right to travel, since it covers only the over-privileged few who are powerful enough to actually commit plunder. In fact, the other 99.9 percent of our people stand to benefit from whatever plundered amount we can recover.

Can you imagine how proud parents would feel if their newborn baby got abducted and replaced by a newborn baboon and the hospital staff  stubbornly insisted that the baboon is their baby? Even after many years, the parents and the child will strive to someday meet, know, acknowledge and be reunited with one another.

Our nation is like that abducted baby. Since the rigged 2004 presidential election (wiretapped tapes are proof enough for me), we have only known life in the shadow of our abductors. Even with many years gone by, it remains paramount for our nation to know and acknowledge our duly elected leader (parent) and to be reunited with the truth. The abduction of our entire nation from its legitimate, duly elected leader remains a deep, open and bleeding wound. The Filipino people and their government cannot allow the persons responsible for this crime to flee and frustrate our right to see justice done.

—ERNIE LAPUZ, [email protected]