IS THERE HOPE FOR PH?

I have this secret, fervent wish that whoever will direct the 3rd SONAwoulddo cut scenes à la The Godfather. For every mention of economic progress, cut to videos of Lumad, displaced Marawi residents. For every build, build, build, cut to empty lots of ‘supposed’ projects. Rens Cruz, @rvcruz2 So the people who said they could magically fix traffic, drugs, crime, corruption in 3-6 months (AND COULDN’T. AT ALL.) are worth believing when they say Federalism will be supergood-oh-my-god-it’s-awesome-magical-system-ofgovernment-why-aren’twe-in-Federalism-yet?!?!? Noel Pascual, @noelvpascual IN “Former South Korean leader gets 8 more years in jail” (World, 7/21/18), it was reported that ousted South Korean president Park Geun-hye was meted out another sentence of eight years in prison after being “found guilty of causing loss of government funds and interfering in a 2016 parliamentary election.” Shades of “Hello, Garci”?

That July verdict came close on the heels of the “sprawling corruption case that led to her impeachment,” where Park was found guilty and sentenced to 24 years in prison.

In these South Korean cases, the corruption charges were all investigated and heard in court in 2016 and, voila, convictions followed in 2018—in just two years!

Read on and weep: “Sandigan junks Villafuerte’s P5-M fertilizer scam case” (News, 7/20/18), which reported that our anticorruption court dismissed the charges against the public official concerned due to “unreasonable delays” in the investigation that lasted 14 years.

And in so many plunder cases filed in this country, how is our own “hudikatura” doing? Still playing footsie with plunderers who are laughing all the way to the bank and skillfully kept out of jail by the best lawyers their loot can buy! May pag-asa pa ba ang Pilipinas?

MARCELO “JR” GARCIS, hello.garci.jr@gmail.com