Time to say ‘Enough is enough!’

Shame! Shame! Shame! All we do is talk, talk, talk, and write, write, write about it when what this stinking pork barrel scandal demands is for the whole nation to have the big guy in Malacañang explain how he justifies keeping the pork barrel in the face of this “granddaddy” of all pork scams! It’s time for action to take away the pork that has only served as a gravy train for those unscrupulous public officials whose concept of public service is really nothing more than satisfying, every which way they can, their tremendous addiction to the color of money—money that belongs to the people but, in reality, are mostly never used for the people’s benefit and welfare.

Unless some kind of a serious step is taken by the whole country, those who should answer for this billion-peso rip-off are going to quietly weather the current storm, while they continue enjoying their loot because they know that sooner or later, the Filipinos will get tired of talking and writing about it (as has always been the case in the past with other scandals), and their poor memory will soon forget this whole disgusting anomaly. And knowing how justice moves pathetically slow in our country, even if criminal charges would be filed against those leeches, as recently reported in the news, chances are those cases will only end up languishing in court for God knows how long, while those sly and cunning hyenas, disguised as public servants, keep on having more fun in the Philippines by “doing business as usual.”

The Filipino people have been robbed and taken for a ride for so long now. It’s time to say enough is enough, and to remind President Aquino that if he’s dead serious in his crusade against corruption in the government, and if he really meant every word when he declared that “the people are his bosses,” here is an opportunity to prove it: Yank the pork barrel system out of existence once and for all.

It’s useless to keep it going because no matter how you tighten the rules, the greedy ones will always find a loophole to divert the funds to their benefits so that in the end, the only sure winners in this pork barrel ballgame will continue to be those good-for-nothing boogers in the government and their cohorts in the civilian sector.

—JUANITO T. FUERTE
jtfuerte@comcast.net