Sins and scenes from the past

Nothing ever gets fixed – they are simply recycled. Once again we find ourselves watching the news full of recycled issues fanned by the same recycled politicians, players and media personalities. Perhaps we will have to wait a full 40 years until God has killed an entire generation before Filipinos really witness change.

Last Wednesday, we got to see Charlie “Atong” Ang and Sandra Cam resurrect the corruption at PCSO and illegal gambling in the Philippines. No. Illegal gambling never died or was ever stopped, the government simply baptized it and gave it a new name: STL. Even the charges and insults were recycled if not resurrected from the past.

The problem in all of this is the fact that the original mission given to Atong Ang by President Duterte was to clean up the PCSO, not to create a nationwide scandal or exposé that has been done before to no avail. Remember the phrase: “Tread softly but carry a big stick”? Unfortunately, Atong Ang is an old school brawler and loves to confront his enemies head on. So he did not have the patience and finesse to gather up the intelligence or present a proper briefing to the President. But on the other hand, his performance at the Senate has at least brought attention to a “business” that has long been the milking cow of politicians and operators.

While Atong Ang had several good points, I noticed that he failed or may have intentionally avoided stating that he is not the biggest gambler in Davao or in the Philippines because the biggest gambling lord in the Philippines is none other than the Philippine government. As a result of this, the government does not have the moral integrity or persuasion to insist that it is the only one who should be engaged in the business. Because we have a government of men and mortals it also follows that their greed and corruption will be part of the conduct of their business and affairs. You cannot act like some self righteous parent and say: “Do what I say and not what I do!” Whether in part or in whole, gambling like sin – is a sin.

I took note of Atong Ang’s comment challenging the PCSO’s policy of giving part of its earnings to municipalities and LGUs. To be fair I believe that it was a bunch of Congressmen who lobbied for that. But since Atong Ang raised the issue, perhaps he should have questioned why the PCSO also spends a very large sum of money for advertising especially commentary programs on radio? I know for a fact that it is based on a policy of appeasement brought up by PCSO public relations consultants in the past. In fact the strategy is to require a lotto or PCSO plug to be read by an AOB or announcer on board. I became victim to this requirement in a small station during my early years in media. After being forced to read the Lotto plug like a willing endorser, I made a joke that with my luck I would probably hit the wall. I was subsequently suspended without pay for a week or two and upon my return asked to apologize to the entire office. I asked to be fired instead.

Atong Ang and the Senators as well as Malacanang would do better by requiring the current leadership to resign because like jueteng, corruption at the PCSO does not happen without the concurrence of those inside the building and if it does without their knowledge, resigning would give them an honorable way out. Of course it would be good if some dudes who reportedly received anywhere from P3 - 10 million per contract approved were taken off the line and sent to Bilibid. After replacing the PCSO leadership, bring in independent lawyers to review all contracts while asking the COA to conduct an exhaustive audit of revenues to determine the claims of Atong Ang about earnings being re-channeled or funneled illegally. Rather than going after personalities and blasting away with shotgun allegations that have been repeated time and again in the past, Atong Ang should have suggested to the PCSO or to the President directly to review and rewrite the PCSO’s business model and business plan.

Lotto by itself is already confusing due to the variety of versions, and the STL for all that has been said and done was really meant to create a platform where jueteng lords could be forced or persuaded to legitimately conduct business and share their revenues with the government in the form of taxes. STL was also a way for some politicians to get into the business without being called jueteng lords. If the jueteng lords of old are now the STL lords of today, we can’t throw mud at their face for actually coming on board the ship of legitimacy. Fix the problem with competent people and correct solutions, not recycled junk or scandal. If Mayor Sabile of Lipa City gets a chance to read this column, I humbly request that he and his councilors spend a little more time studying the traffic management system in Lipa City. Traffic jams have become part of the scenery and the introduction of traffic lights only cost the city a lot of money but are not being programed efficiently in order to reduce traffic. The lights have actually caused more traffic particularly from Marauoy all the way to the old rotunda on the Laurel highway. This is such a big turn off for visitors, investors as well as business people.To be fair the city has assigned a few traffic enforcers but they too have focused too much on arresting violators instead of getting vehicles to move along.