No one should really be surprised if the recent burst of violence in Zamboanga City allegedly unleashed by the men of Nur Misuari’s MNLF is backed up by big politicians embroiled in the Napoles scam.
Either it is staged as a distraction from the focus the media is giving to the probe on this despicable heinous perfidy of grand proportion, the pork barrel scam or altogether to scuttlebutt the ongoing Mindanao peace process and incite chaos to the whole country.
Either way it is de-stabilizing the headway the current government is getting.
As a side note, the non-inclusion of Nur Misuari’s MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front) in the still ongoing Mindanao Peace Process was really seen, from the start, by many observers that such act, deliberate or not, was an invitation for trouble. But that’s another story.
Now, by stirring the Moro cauldron in Zamboanga, all attention, the media’s, and the government’s machineries will be re-directed away from this pork barrel skulduggery towards putting down the conflagration of violence that surely will create havoc and re-set this current government’s agenda.
As I am writing this, the wires say that Secretary Teresita Deles, the president’s adviser on the peace process has started overtures to talk to Nur Misuari. He made the noise and he is getting the attention. The inclusion of Misuari in talks should have been part of the process from the very start.
For all the man’s worth today, the fact cannot be denied that he started the move towards the creation of the autonomous region in Mindanao. But back to the story…
If such distractions hatched by society’s elements whose only concern is their own selfish interests then it will be business as usual for people like Napoles, despite being in custody now, as she is only one of them. There are other Napoles clones out there just waiting for some disgruntled conspirators to find the right time when to blow the whistles.
The question though is whether where all these will end? Or is there an end? Some legal luminaries say that the case against the Ampatuans for masterminding the grisly massacre of at least 58 men and women in November 23, 2009, would take at least 200 years to conclude given the enormity of the crime, and the kind of people involved in the context of a corrupt judiciary, not to mention its snail pace proceedings.
The personalities involved in the pork barrel scandal are titans and have deep roots in influence, power, machinery and money. Given that and the history of the country in terms of prosecuting those who are accused, this case may take a thousand years.
Why? Look at the Marcoses, Renato Corona, Lieutenant General Jacinto Ligot, Major General Carlos Garcia, to name a few. They are left to live more free than the birds in Mount Apo.
I will not be surprised if one of these days, Janet Napoles will run for congress and win in Basilan where she is from. If Imelda, Gloria, Erap, Paquiao and his wife Jinky (Thank God, Mommy Dionesia was sane enough not to run for office for she could have won), etc., could wing it, why not Janet.
Other personalities have entrenched themselves in the corridors of power as rewards for all the controversies they have created, proven as crimes or not. I can name a few: Antonio Trillanes, Gringo Honasan, Panfilo Lacson, etc. Who says life is fair?
We don’t have to look far, my friends. Here in Toronto, those who fool the public by pocketing what is not theirs and use that money to aggrandize and deodorize their stench are rewarded by fawning adorers and some even given greater reward with a government position.
Sorry, folks, but that’s how cynical I have become when it comes to the country’s politics. So, although it may take a thousand years, all those who have wronged the Filipino people or any people must account for all the wrongs they have committed.
The discovery of the scam purportedly masterminded by Janet Napoles is only the finger that points to the moon. As the Chinese philosopher Confucius said “When a wise man points at the moon the imbecile examines the finger.”
I hope authorities will not be the imbecile that would just look at the finger and not set its eyes to the larger view of things — the moon. Yes, even if it would be just baying at the moon.
Pandora has opened the box that contains all the ugly things, one by one the evil is coming out of the box. I wish that like the mythical Pandora the last one to fly out of the box is the only positive thing there is, hope. Yes, for that is what is only left of us.
And Heaven of course, if there is one.
-30-
