When Soap Opera No Longer Let Us Weep But Be Even

You really can stare in amazement and disgust how our officials can lie through their teeth. Long before the ZTE scandal can die its natural death, the news is rife with another scandal with even greater magnitude - brazen bribing of congressmen and other government officials inside (no less) the residence of the president of the republic of the Philippines.

Of course, one cannot ignore the fact that the bribing didn't just involve with measly hundred peso bills, but thousands amounting to 200, 000 to 500, 000. And one cannot discount the fact that the bribe did not just involve with one or two persons (as in the case of ZTE) but 190 congressmen present and other mayors and governors all over the country. That makes the figure even more staggering to compute. Php 500, 000 to, let's say, 200 personas? You do the math!

Moreover, one cannot ignore even where this being done, as I pointed earlier, but in the Malacanan palace in broad daylight. Lastly (I hope), you cannot ignore among the 200 or so people who were given those (as shown in TV), only three stood out and admitted they had, in fact, the bags containing those figures.  

Again, you really can stare in amazement and absolute disgust how our officials can lie through their very teeth.

The trail of absurdity and disgust do not end there. Look at how GMA reacted to all these through her ever reliable puppet in the person of Sec Ignacio Bunye. She, GMA, was aghast (daw) and ordered immediately for the investigation. How dramatic.

 But the faking and the drama are all over. Who would want to believe her should need eye and ear check ups. Neil Cruz, a PDI columnist, was right in his column Only Arroyo has power to order Palace payoff. Only one person has the power and authority to release so much cash without a paper trail, the column reasons, and that is Arroyo. She has her almost unlimited discretionary and intelligence funds to draw from.

But given that she really did not know of any payoff, that is doubly damning. Cruz asks: the president doesn't know what is going around her?

We have the president and 190 congressmen doing this, heaven help us. We don't just have thieves in our government seats, we have liars. And you still wonder why we can't move forward, or why we rank first as the most corrupt?

Time now to storm the streets.