The Road to 40 Day 139/365: The Risk of Revelation

I spent most of the day listening to yet another senate hearing about the flood control projects in the Philippines.

On this day, a new witness came out to implicate two close allies of the president, and an old witness mentioned the name of popular senators not previously tied to this issue.

It was said that there were multiple bags of money being transported from one place to another, talking about billions of pesos in luggages delivered to condos and mansions.

The difficult thing about these proceedings is that we don’t know who’s telling the truth, and if they are telling the whole truth and not selective facts. One could say that the witness gains nothing from this, so he should be credible.

Let me say that, based on experience, there are witnesses who truly gain nothing from speaking up. My uncle spoke up on the NBN-ZTE deal some years back. Even he admits that he’s not exactly the cleanest guy here, as he did get “moderate” kickbacks during his time in a government position.

At the height of the investigations, he was asked to leave the country so that he would not testify, and when he was asked to return, he didn’t even pass through the immigration gates. He was picked up by multiple vehicles from the tarmac, and if it was not covered by some AM radio stations back then, we wouldn’t know where he would have ended up.

It was a long and difficult battle for him and his family, and as far as I know, he lost more than he gained for what happened. The project was scrapped, but none of the people who benefitted the most from it were convicted.

My uncle, on the other hand, had his character as a person attacked by powerful people who researched everything he’s done from the time he was born. For a time, they lived in constant fear of potentially being taken or attacked. My cousins had to call La Salle in Greenhills their home for a good part of their formative years, living in the dorms with the brothers.

While we’re grateful that they were taken care of by the La Sallian community, it was not a life that they deserved for what my uncle did. He wanted to speak the truth because he feared for the life of his family and his own, and it would benefit the nation if the wrongdoers were punished, no matter what happened to him.

Yet, he was imprisoned for “conspiracy to commit fraud” a little over a decade from when everything went down. It was for a deal that didn’t fall through that he admitted during the senate inquiry. He didn’t gain anything from it precisely because it didn’t push through, but he and his brother were convicted to six years in prison.

The other people involved were still able to go back to government positions.

And yet at the time, we were talking about a maybe 200 million project that probably would be completed with a 70 million budget or less.

Now it’s billions of pesos – unimaginable money that you’d need lifetimes to spend before it runs out. There are clear people at the top who are responsible, quite a few people involved who benefitted in various capacities, and countless Filipinos who are suffering for it.

The people who spoke up – the district engineers and the contractors, at least – wish to be taken in as state witnesses. However, if they are granted such a privilege, it means they would not be persecuted for what they did, which doesn’t seem right. Yet, there’s a fear that they are not telling the whole truth unless they are granted such immunity.

It’s amazing how greedy these people can be, with people who gained so much still wanting to protect what they essentially stole. When they speak in the senate, they talk of “open secrets” like they all know about kickbacks and corruption. Why are there even “open secrets” like these if they can hold these people accountable? If it’s “open” then they know how it works, right?

I feel like what is happening now is a result of people in the government turning a blind eye towards these so-called “open secrets” for so long that the greed ballooned immensely.

My uncle’s case was way back in 2009, and since the people involved were back in office, they probably continued doing what they were doing. Then it just evolved and had more and more people involved so that every one of them could eat at the expense of taxpayers.

Right now, I can only hope that the investigations lead to convictions. Personally, I think even the guilty witnesses should be punished, no matter how much their testimonies help with the investigations.

Sure, they put themselves in harm’s way like my uncle did at the time, but considering how much they profited from taxpayers’ money, they should understand that they must pay for what they did and not be hailed as heroes who took big names down.

At the very least, the Filipinos deserve to know the whole truth about these “open secrets” and people should be punished, no matter their position in the government.

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