Lucky ‘orangutangs’ used to shenanigans

The plumpest, most expensive pork on the planet is in Congress. It’s millions of pesos by the kilo, and billions by the barrel. And you don’t have to buy it. Just be one lucky “orangutang” elected to Congress, then steal it. This has been done and can be done still.

Barrels are emptied, the pork stolen, and the thieves celebrate their plunders in luxury trips abroad, property-buying spree, secret bank accounts, high-end cars, Dom Perignon pushing down the caviar—and gold-plated coffins when tragedy strikes. All this as we wait in agony for the axe to fall on the 29 world-class swindlers masquerading as lawmakers—at least, 23 congressmen and seven senators, who purloined P10 billion in pork barrel allegedly in cahoots with a blue-collared gangster.

The characters in the flimflam are not new to corruption. One was a martial law honcho who wielded unabated power the way he wanted to. Another is a chip off the old block, a beneficiary of a repressive regime’s plunder. Still another carries the DNA of a plunderer. The fourth one seems unsure of whether he should be in the Senate or on TV. The fifth reportedly had his hands on a quarry scam. The sixth is a “derivative” of the martial law honcho.

These rascals (I don’t call them solons) have not crafted any commendable law, only trash.

Filipinos, keep the legal machinery working 24/7! Quintuple the efforts to get these scumbags and make the people happy by putting them in a steel cage. Do this while a graft-busting president, the watchdog of watchdogs, is at the helm exhorting the virtue of righteousness to fight unrighteousness in public service.

Do it asap, lest a corruption-friendly president comes next and whitewash the whole dirty barrel of pork until it is as white as snow.

—MANUEL BIASON, [email protected]