FOI law: Why it could be just wishful thinking

Thanks for Ma. Ceres Doyo’s column on the Freedom of Information (FOI)/Transparency bill. (“Push, pass the FOI Act now!,” Inquirer, 8/16/12) The sad fact is that two-thirds of the members of our Congress are keeping stolen (euphemized as “hidden”) wealth or properties that they want to make “FOI-proof.” Some very creative lawmakers want their own version of a toned-down (defanged) bill so that they can effectively hide them. Remember the midnight sale orgies of sequestered, privatized, non-performing (kuno), prime government properties like the Alabang Stock Farm, Mactan Air Base reservation, Clark Airbase, Amari Reclamation, Fort Bonifacio reservation, Nichols Air Base and many more, as well as the yard sale of PAL/GSIS Union Tower Building in San Francisco, California (smoothly maneuvered by then GSIS general manager and now Speaker Sonny Belmonte), also the sale of PNB Wilshire Building in Los Angeles (during the time of then PNB president Edgardo Espiritu), the baratillo of the sequestered Marcos’ Lindenmerre Estates in Long Island, New York, together with the 5th Avenue penthouses of Imelda, not to mention the other properties in Florida and Hawaii that were likewise sold wholesale at yard sale price to several cronies and/or scalawags, and the billion-dollar government/reclamation property in Central Tokyo known as the Ropponggi Estate, which was sold for a song.

All those properties could have helped our government earn billions, even trillions of dollars (that would’ve made our country very powerful and wealthy) if only those cronies and thieves had controlled themselves from getting too much “tongpats” and making “bukols” of wealth for themselves.

Now they are going through sleepless nights worrying about how to deal with the FOI/Transparency bill. They can pass the FOI bill alright; but through horse-trading and manipulation, they can easily defang or tone it down.

The bottom line is this: Those who did not sign the original FOI bill sponsored by Rep. Erin Tañada are the ones who have lots of explaining to do, period. They should return their stolen wealth, pronto.

As for the few heroes in Congress who are pushing for the original FOI, they should follow it (FOI bill) up with the Anti-Trust bill (similar to RICO [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations] Act of the United States) and Anticorruption Whistle-blower bill (similar to Singapore’s).

If ever those anticorruption statutes will be passed this year, we can expect a depopulation or reduction in the number of congressional crocodilians (Crocodylia Kurakutis) by at least 50 percent. That would save the country billions in pork barrel funds.

As for the Bureau of Corrections, it will have its hands full as it will be dealing with a gazillion of VIP crocodilians who could create havoc in the New Bilibid Prison and other penal institutions nationwide.

—BOBBY SANTOS,

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