The Senate partial report on the Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation and the alleged corruption of billions of pesos by overpricing face masks and face shields was a welcome relief. It recommended the filing of charges against a number of people including DOH Secretary Duque and the President after he steps down from office.
Compare that though with South Korea and we are nothing in keeping our officials straight and clean while in office. In South Korea, there is really reason to fear if you had any intention of stealing from the government. They were able to send to jail so many of their presidents. At one time, half of the living ex-presidents had been to jail
In the Philippines, a threat of sending a former president to jail is a joke. Perhaps that is why President Duterte is not worried at all about acting as if he were the lawyer of Pharmally and its people.
We still have to send even one former president to jail. PNoy managed to have GMA arrested but was only able to have her confined at the hospital. PNoy, with all his powers then as president, could only manage that far regarding GMA whose appointees were even able to liquidate the use of public funds in the amount of one billion pesos allegedly paid for coffee. Yeah! With that amount, the whole cabal could have been drinking a liter of coffee every minute the whole time GMA was in power.
The sad thing about it was the existence of a personal motive of PNoy against GMA. It appeared that he took it hard, GMA’s insulting or failure to heed Tita Cory’s stateman’s call for GMA to resign, as ultimate sacrifice, during the “Hello, Garci” scandal. Yet, PNoy was only able to succeed in sending GMA to the hospital.
So, the way things are, the only thing future presidents would fear for being corrupt is being driven by the people out of Malacanang. We have seen it happen, so it could again happen.
As to sending them to jail, we, as a people, will have to show we have the brains and chutzpah to accomplish that.**