Getting back

We will restore public trust in today’s Congress, Franklin Drilon said in Barasoain Church during the 115th anniversary of the Malolos Congress. “We hear our people’s clamor for accountability. They will not be denied. We will hold ourselves accountable. This will strengthen our democracy that our forefathers in the Malolos Congress wanted to leave to the future generation…. The government is listening to the concerns of our people. The Senate is listening. I am listening and I will do what I can do so that our Congress can regain the trust of the people.”

Those are fine words, but I don’t know that we have to wait for the results of the Ombudsman’s investigation before we can restore trust in Congress. Or indeed beyond Congress, in our public officials, in our various institutions, in our democracy itself. There are a couple of things we can do right now to make that happen.

One is to suspend the accused senators from the Senate, the accused congressmen from the House, the accused local officials from their various posts, and the accused chiefs of staff from their jobs, if not indeed put them under detention. Conventional wisdom says you can’t do that unless they’ve been proven guilty, but conventional wisdom has never really been wise, it’s always been too cautious. Or scared. Janet Lim-Napoles is currently incarcerated in a camp in Laguna under heavy guard for her protection, or to prevent her from escaping, or both. She hasn’t been proven guilty either. What’s the difference between her and the legislators?

Is her crime weightier? Arguably, she stole more. The errant senators and congressmen got only 40 percent of their individual PDAF, Napoles got 40 percent of the PDAF of all of them. But the kickbacks attributed to the former are nothing to sneeze at: Juan Ponce Enrile, P172,834,500; Bong Revilla, P224,512,500; Jinggoy Estrada, P183,793,750; Rizalina Seachon-Lanete, P108,405,000; Edgar Valdez, P56,087,500; Rodolfo Plaza, P42,137,800;  Samuel Dangwa, P26,770,472; Constantino Jaraula, P20,843,750; and smaller sums to their chiefs of staff.

The smallest amount there is P20 million or so, which looks miniscule amid the vastness of P10 billion. But tell that to the family Kristel Tejada left behind, Tejada being the 17-year-old UP Manila student said to have committed suicide because she couldn’t pay P6,500 in tuition. You look at it from that point of view and the gravity of things changes completely. The money that was stolen from us spelled quite literally the life and death of some of us.

Again, to recall, the government put Neric Acosta under preventive suspension after he was accused of plunking P5.5 million of his PDAF when he was still a congressman into an NGO where his mother was a director. As quantity and quality go, his transgression was nothing compared to the amounts the cited senators and congressmen flushed down the drain, or their pockets, which look not unlike toilet bowls, and the brazen foulness with which they did it. Arguably, Acosta was already in the executive branch when he was suspended, but why should the Senate or House be less resolute in this regard? The job is cut out for Drilon and Sonny Belmonte.

If any crime is heavier, it is that of the legislators, not Napoles’. The fact that they are elected officials does not make their hold on their office, quite apart from freedom, firmer, it makes them looser. We elected them, we can take them out. We are their boss, as P-Noy likes to point out.

Of course they can always do the decent thing, however it is hard to expect the decent thing from those who like to do indecent things, and take a leave of absence. But barring that, we can always compel them to do so on pain of paying the price for showing lack of delicadeza, or fineness, or shame. Why should we allow people who have shown just cause to be arraigned for lawlessness to continue to make laws for us? That is quite apart from the fact that it’s Congress that passes the budget. What can prevent the tainted congressmen and senators from threatening to cut the budget of the NBI and COA and the other agencies responsible for their current misfortunes to P1?

The other thing we can do even now is to initiate the recovery of the loot. The PCGG, if I recall right, is under the Department of Justice. I should think it is part of its mandate to recover current ill-gotten wealth and not just past ones. It was Sonny Angara who noted during the Senate hearings when Benhur Luy appeared as witness that nothing had been said in that respect. It was fine that they were ferreting out the truth, it was fine that they were following the trail, it was fine that they were pursuing the guilty. But what about recovering the money they stole?

It’s a very good point. It’s like that joke, “May trabaho ka na nga, gusto mo pa ng sweldo (You already have a job, you want to get paid as well)?” In this case, we seem to be saying: We’re already unmasking the crooks, we want them to return their loot as well? In fact the one flows logically from the other. Getting paid is the logical consequence of working. Getting back what they stole is the logical consequence of catching thieves.

Quite apart from its immense practical value, which is putting the money in the hands of those who need it, there’s the even more immense moral value of getting back the stolen money, which is putting it in the hands of those who own it. It hammers home in the public consciousness, a thing that needs hammering again and again, that taxes are the people’s money. Public officials who steal that money are no better than snatchers, pickpockets, holdup men.

Getting back what was stolen from us is the least that we deserve. Getting back at those who stole from us, that’s next.