This is strange when the proof comes before the lie. This particular case is one for dentopedalogy, the art of putting one’s foot in one’s mouth. What makes this most interesting is that Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go may have thought he was doing a good turn for Digong when he declared, without batting an eyelash, recently that the claim about a reward system for the war on drugs was pure fiction. It was an amateurish performance.
Yet, there is this Sept. 24, 2019 interview with Bong Go in which he declared there would be a P1-million reward for each slain “ninja” cop, P500,000 for each errant law enforcer arrested and P2 million for each “nanlaban” policeman. There are videos of this interview, and this only affirms that Go lied in his latest diatribe contesting the disclosures made by retired police Col. Royina Garma about the rewards for those who kill suspected drug kingpins, pushers and users, with the reward ranging from P20,000 to P1-million.
Of course, being the trapeze artist and contortionist that he is, Bong Go may argued that the reward system he disclosed in 2019 is not the same as the reward system for the “war on drugs.” The fact is that Go tackled the reward system with journalists covering the Senate in 2019 while Garma tagged him as the man who touched base with Col. Edilberto Leonardo to organize the “war on drugs” after Garma herself suggested that the alumnus of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) and devout Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) member fits the requirements of chief executing officer (CEO) of the drug war to a tee. In effect, Garma implied that Go might have vetted Leonardo first before the meetings of Duterte and Leonardo happened at Hotel Mandaya. It is public knowledge in Davao City that the “cleaners” in the city were paid lesser amounts than the big-time incentives for the drug war killers.
Go actually raged against quad panel lawmakers for the prolonged investigation of Garma, including her romantic dalliance with Duterte, her huge bank accounts, businesses here and abroad, and the assassination of the late Brig. Gen. Wesley Barayuga, who was the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PVSO) board secretary when he was waylaid in 2020. Leonardo, too, has been linked with the Kingsmen, a group of police officers who had huge stakes in STL operations that Garma controlled. The information elicited by the quad committee provides the basis for the plot to execute Barayuga, who opposed Garma’s policies. It was comical for Go to ask the lawmakers why they suddenly tuned against Duterte and their riposte was merciless: We don’t profit from the murders of our constituents. “Hindi ba kayo nakinabang?” he asked them, only to be told that only the drug CEO and finance managers under Go’s employ could have literally earned blood money.
“Anim na SONA (State of the Nation Address), tuwing binabanggit ni Pangulong Duterte ang war on drugs, nagpapalakpakan po ang lahat, standing ovation. Tapos bakit ngayon sinisisi? Bakit ngayon mag-isa na lang siya? Hindi ba kayo nakinabang?” (Whenever President Duterte mentioned the war on drugs in those six SONAs, everyone was praising him. There were standing ovations. But why are you blaming him now? Why does it seem that he is alone now? Didn’t you benefit from it?) Go roared. Surely, lawmakers would not benefit from the hundreds of thousands of children orphaned by Duterte’s killers or from the tens of thousands of women who became widows overnight. Unlike the Villars, congressmen are not known to own memorial parks and funeral homes. They don’t need bloody side hustles organized by a man scared stiff by the ghosts of Malacanang.
Garma revealed the reward paid per killing in the Duterte administration’s “war on drugs” ranged from P20,000 to P1 million, depending on Leonardo’s classification of the targets neutralized. Go emphatically denied there was no Duterte reward system for that “war,” arguing that there were no death squads and no Leonardo task force to oversee the bloody scheme. “Pero wala siyang sinabi na ‘patayin mo ‘to, patayin mo ‘yan.’ Wala pong reward system na umiiral sa kanyang opisina. Sinusuportahan niya po ang kapulisan, kung ano ang pwede niyang suporta para magampananan po nila ang kanilang tungkulin,” Go argued, in effect telling us that he was born yesterday. His philippics don’t wash. He simply isn’t the best tool in Duterte’s shed.
From 1998, Go was Duterte’s gatekeeper, the man erected a fence around the body of his boss. In short, he is the one-man “cordon sanitaire” who sanitized the Davao City Hall and who prevented Duterte allies from having access to their godfather. Duterte insiders said that all Cabinet appointments in 2016 passed through Go as the chief censor. He was even said to be crucial in the election of the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The story making the rounds is that he played a key role in anointing Alan Peter Cayetano as Speaker of the Lower House after Duterte had promised the post to a Visayan congressman.
Aside from not being wise enough to understand the gravity of Duterte’s situation, he has even delegated the function of assessing the political environment to his lieutenants and PR people. Wisdom is never freelanced and his entire political career was built on his proximity to Duterte. It is the reason why Christopher Lao and Lincolnn Ong stuck with him and these two guys are part of the Pharmally dramatis personae, men who profited immensely from the Covid-19 scams. He cannot lie his way out of Garma’s affidavit. She gave him a big whack and when the documents are found, from the paper trail of Metrobank, BDO and PSBank to the phone records, the details of meetings and the statements of Muking Espino, Peter Parungo, Leonardo and the PNP elements, Go will certainly have one hell of a time to prove he is lily-white. Go will now have to hide behind the protective armor of his carapace. But when you’re down in a rabbit hole, or sinking in the quicksand, can you survive with your face intact?
