By Antonio P. Pekas
Since we started publishing this paper more than 20 years ago, we had been saying in this corner that no corruption in government could be done were the COA officers and personnel and other government auditors honest and true to their calling.
The problem is that these employees usually get appointed to their positions through the recommendation or intercession of politicians or their next of kin, or, yes, their girlfriends or boyfriends. How about that House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez? In a query yesterday by a reporter if he was admitting he has a girlfriend, he answered, “Kayo naman. Lahat may girlfriend.”
In the case of Senator Leila De Lima, it was of course her boyfriend you should have looked for if you wanted any favor from her.
But back to auditors. They might appear to be strict and clean but everything changes when his or her appointment benefactor would come a calling. 99% he would say yes no matter how illegal the favor being asked of him was.
So the corruption keeps on going. And everytime I hear of any corruption case my blood sort of boils, and then I get so interested. Thus my interest when Salvador Liked appeared in our office with a copy of an Ombudsman decision.
Liked of course is not a saint. Very far from it. In fact, I heard a lot of allegations that he and another character are regularly involved in using anything illegal they could see as a way to extort money. Of course, I know this is not true, or is there truth to it?
Since I am a lot older than Salvador Liked, I would like to freely take this opportunity to give an advice. Any form of extortion is bad and will backfire sooner or later. If not in this lifetime, in the next. Would you like to be born again with some congenital defects like those beggars on the sides of streets? Or would you like to be born a homosexual confused of his sexuality? Or would you like to end up in jail, like in the National Penitentiary in Muntinlupa? Mind you, it would be inevitable and would happen either in this lifetime or in the next.
The best way is to take the high road. If you spot an illegal act or corruption, by all means, do something about it. But it should be in the interest of the people or the public.
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Just the other week I wrote an editorial about the proliferation of gambling in Baguio City. It only stopped for a week when Du30 declared that he was going to do something about it. After about a week according to a taxi driver, it came back with a vengeance. Surely, this is making Du30 look like a wimp. He is being openly disobeyed by lowly officers down to the cities and the barangays.
The question is: Who are benefitting from illegal gambling’s resurgence in Baguio City?
In the operation of illegal gambling, there is always a blue book containing the list of those receiving payolas. All media outfits are usually listed there. Somebody is getting the money for every outfit. Whether or not the money reaches the intended recipient is of course another matter.
In our case, somebody must be getting what is intended for us. I can look at anybody straight in the eye that we are not receiving any gambling payola, and we will not receive any. I don’t like the karmic returns from it. For gambling, especially the small and illegal ones, are the scourge of the masses. It is one of the reasons they cannot extricate themselves from the mire of poverty.**
