By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
We the ordinary people work our butts off everyday to be able to put only the basic food on the table. There is no problem about that if only others are not stealing our money from the government. So when we read or hear about rich or influential people– who never tried to be pushed to the edge of the proverbial economic precipice– stealing our money, it makes our blood boil.
The other week, what was hugging the headlines were the perennial passport problems like delays in their issuance, the lack of passport material at the Department of Foreign Affairs, etc. Then the renewal which blew out the lid of the Pandora’s Box. Out came the suspected compromising of the personal data of passport holders. Then there was the assurance that no data was compromised by the contracted printer of the passports. It turned out they did not have the data at all, giving a lot of headaches to those in the bee line for the renewal of their passports.
Passport holders who seek renewal have to produce again their birth certificates which is unnecessary, even stupid. Renewal was just supposed to be renewal. And so the DFA secretary said that people need not present again the documents they presented when they obtained their expired passports. Then the problem was bared. The printer of passports did not have the personal data of passport holders so it could not just reproduce them.
Then the Manila Times, through the column of Rigoberto Tiglao, a former top official of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, stumbled on the humongous anomaly in the printing of passports. It turned out that the 11th richest man of the country, Inigo Zobel, and his cabal, cornered the deal, to the tune of P38 billion, without any public bidding during the most recent Aquino administration. Surely that was a gross violation of the Anti-graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
It used to be that Philippine passports were being printed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas with its French company partner. Due to alleged problems (or were they concocted?) the printing was privatized and the company of Zobel and his group cornered the deal. As aforesaid, without public bidding.
But just like Bong Revilla who was acquitted from the charges of graft or economic sabotage by misusing hundreds of millions of the people’s money that ended up in his personal bank account, Zobel and his coconspirators might just go scot free.
It will not be surprising for in this country only the petty criminals go to jail or gunned down. The big ones, they are always laughing on their way to the bank.
If this present administration is really out to stamp out corruption, then it should show it by sending some big fish to jail. Sending those involved in this latest passport scam to jail is one glorious chance to show it is better than past administrations.
If this happens, as we do our day to day hard work, at least we will not feel so bad having to work hard but are being cheated by those in government and their cohorts.
Until then, it feels foolish to be subscribing to hard but honest labor.
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