Bong's theatrics didn't work

He is believed to have friends and business partners among the police, and may have other important connections in government agencies, but if he is not a friend of Bureau of Internal Revenue Kim Henares, then he may not be able to count on all those other influential friends. Because, as it is, the lady tax collector has not shown any respect for tax evaders, and does the man of the hour, Cedric Lee, also have tentacles in the BIR that could help him?

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He should remember that even Manny Pacquiao, the country's idol, its Pambansang Kamao, and hero of several boxing bouts abroad, was not spared by the BIR head, how much more someone who is now embroiled in a crime involving such cruelty and circuitous stories? Can he rely on all those generals who were his business partners and cohorts in dealing with Kim Henares? Someone should remind him about one of most America's most notorious gangsters, Al Capone, on whom the government could not pin any wrongdoing, until the tax man was sicced on him.

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Meanwhile, the Batang Pinoy games being held in Bacolod got a black eye when the mother of one of the participants was victimized by a thief in the quarters assigned to them. The woman said she went to sleep with her handbag at the foot of her bed, but when she woke up, it was gone. The bag was later found in the vicinity, but her P5000 was gone. The woman said she was very disappointed at the security provided them. What were the cops supposed to have augmented the local ones doing?

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Senator Bong Revilla has become one of those accused before the Ombudsman who found out how intractable that agency is under its new chairman. Despite his beautiful showing at the Senate, denouncing the filing of charges against him, the Ombudsman junked his appeal to stop the probe on him involving plunder. And so the SandiganBayan show will go on? What do Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Jinggoy Estrada think about that?

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And what must all those others facing charges before the Ombudsman and the SandiganBayan be feeling right now that the two females heading these agencies are working treble time on the cases before them, especially those involving the use of the pork barrel they had been granted so generously and so freely, until last year? Already, the President, in his determination to rid the country of grafters and of opportunities to commit corrupt acts, has abolished three of the questionable GOCCs, or government-owned and controlled corporations. And Malacañang has intimated that more will follow.

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One could sympathize with ousted Chief Justice Renato Corona because of the charges he is now facing, but didn't he bring all that upon himself? The charges include his supposedly unexplained wealth. That was taken up even during his impeachment trial, so why couldn't he refute it? The charges say that he could not explain the sudden appearance of money in his accounts, when records show that his salary and allowances as Chief Justice were only so much. As a lawyer supposed to be brilliant enough to rise to the position of Chief Justice, he should have known better.

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The charges against him include perjury and multiple violations of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and employees. Somehow we can only wonder how the past administration had appointed him to that exalted position without vetting his fitness for it. Now he will stay in history as the Chief Justice who violated so many laws, he had not only been impeached, but also charged for crimes involving ethics. How shameful naman.

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Journalists often face hazardous situations as they go about their duties, but here in Bacolod, and maybe even in the Philippines, we do not know yet of any one of our colleagues facing a threat of being thrown out of a balcony, like TV reporter Michael Sotto of New York. Something must have happened during their interview that led Congressman Micheal Grimm, not only to tell Sotto that he will break him in half, he also said he would be thrown from the balcony! Of course that will not qualify the U.S. for such titles as one of the most dangerous countries for the media, like good old Filipinas. There they are only good in threatening, here they do something.*

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