If you want to know how bankrupt a politician is, look at his or her or their slogans, or what passes for wit. Take Rodrigo Duterte’s pained sentence: “I am not a Filipino for nothing.” It doesn’t mean anything, a light year removed from Ninoy Aquino’s “The Filipino is worth dying for.” The only meaning one can attach to what he blurted out is that he was something, a president who presided over the extermination of 30,000 Filipinos in what he dubbed as the “war on drugs,” and “not against drugs.”
Yet, a Filipino should be ashamed of his record as a prosecutor, Davao City mayor, congressman, and president. Losing so many cases is not something to brag about, and fabricating evidence is a surefire way for the republic to get drubbed in the courtroom. Despite the billions poured into Davao City in more than two decades of the Duterte dynasty, floods are recurrent, residents complain about substandard public works projects, and progress has never risen to the level achieved by cities in Luzon and the Visayas. If he were alive today, Groucho Marx would have paid tribute to Duterte in this wise: “Now, I know a man with an open mind—you can feel the breeze from here.”
As president, Duterte presided over the drowning of the Philippine economy, inheriting an already huge P6.09 trillion debt that he more than doubled by borrowing P7.329 trillion in six years. Former Economic Planning Secretary Cielito Habito rued this lack of prudence on Duterte’s part, saying that the consolidated public sector debt (CPSD) skyrocketed nearly 400% bigger than the gross domestic product (GDP.) So bad was the economic management that Habito noted the CPSD broke the threshold at 8.6% of GDP in 2021 and 7.3% in 2022, when the COVID-19 pandemic eased substantially.
Duterte practically controlled the entire budget earmarked to battle the pandemic, and this explained why the Department of Health (DOH) tossed to Davao City lawyer Christopher Lloyd Lao the task of disposing the money for battling the pandemic. In turn, Lao chose Pharmally, the company capitalized at P625,000, to monopolize the supply of face masks and personal protective equipment (PPE) while another official from Davao City also made a pile by importing face shields. It was by design that Pharmally cornered DOH contracts. The company was controlled by Michael Yang, some Singaporean and ethnic Indian traders, and Lincolnn Ong, a Cebu guy who had been claiming close business ties to Sen. Bong Go. When the Duterte-controlled Senate refused to throw the books at the Pharmally scammers, those who allowed them to go scot-free apparently were like the notorious US Sen. Joe McCarthy. They had no sense of decency.
Today, the same senators who threw the strong case that the perpetrators of the Pharmally scam are going to pass a double loyalty test. First is the loyalty to Rodrigo Duterte and the second is the loyalty to Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio. Absolute loyalty to an unlamented president and absolute fealty to the daughter, who insisted the presidency was hers for taking in 2022, a fib that perpetually rankles Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and his wife. It sucks and betrays the depravity and mendacity of senators who, for decades, prided themselves as “independent lawmakers” guided by the people’s best interest.
Being loyal to Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio means believing in her principal maxim: “Honesty is not needed in politics.” Surely, the next thing these unprincipled senators would do is to recite their “Panatang Maka-Sara,” several stanzas of ugly verses that elevate Sara into a Philippine Eagle, a bird of prey, a rapacious creature in the wild. Since honesty is not needed in politics, according to Sara, it might as well not be needed anymore in fiscal management, the distribution of “rewards,” whether in cash or in kind or in “other products.” Sara should practice what she preaches and be a world-class equivocator, and take to heart what Groucho Marx said: “The most important thing is honesty. Once you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”
Given the sordid fiscal management record of the Dutertes, the Filipino people should insist that the Commission on Audit (COA) release all audit reports from the time Rodrigo Duterte became mayor of Davao City and his children started occupying government positions. These should include all disallowances, suspensions, and charges. Sara is accused of wasting P125 million in confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) given by the Palace to the OVP in 2022 in just 11 days. There was no accounting of the P150 million of the P500-million CIF for OVP and she squandered P2.735 billion of CIF during her incumbency as Davao City mayor.
Sara also left DepEd with P12 billion in disallowances, suspensions, and charges, as well as P7 billion in unliquidated cash advances, and “rigged” the bidding of P2 billion worth of laptops and other electronic devices. She has to explain the Duterte’s ill-gotten wealth, money laundering and the P111 million stashed in her accounts. Hundreds of millions were deposited in her accounts along with an account held jointly with her father from 2007 to 2015, and these were disproportionate to their legitimate sources of income in eight years.
As the Americans would say, “if you’re not on the table, you must be on the menu.” It means if you are not on the negotiating table, you must be the prey.” Since 1920, when the Americans introduced the pork barrel system in this country, the people had been denied the right to scrutinize the budget-making process. Now, they know nothing about how the members of the bicameral committee introduce their own projects and programs to be funded by both the General Appropriations Act (GAA) and the unprogrammed appropriations (UAs), which are now being funded by government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) like PhilHealth. Grafters should be exposed and opposed, whether they are surnamed Duterte, Marcos, Villar, Romualdez, Estrada, Ejercito, Romualdez or Recto. Or whether they promote worthless slogans or not.
