CORRUPTION’S BIGGER PICTURE

IN his Aug. 10 letter, “Ex-PCSO officials should strike while the iron is hot,” Ramon Torrefranca wrote: “Our current judicial system is so f—ked up that looters of public funds have never had it so freakin’ good.” So true, but he missed the bigger picture.

From where we stand, we find shameless amassers of wealth while doing “public service” not only in the executive and legislative branches of the government, but most dishearteningly, in the judiciary—the justices of the Supreme Court no less! So what do they care if presidents, senators, congressmen, and their ilk rob the people blind?

As members of the high court, they already enjoy enormous benefits (the fattest salaries, allowances and perks among fellow “public servants” in that branch). We cannot, for the life of us, understand why they have to help themselves to more of the people’s money for serving in an ex officio capacity in the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), the Senate Electoral Tribunal and the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal.

“Ex officio” means by virtue of another office held. Thus, a justice in the Supreme Court is also deemed a member of the PET. If he does work as PET member, he obviously does no work as a high court member—unless he splits his body and brain in half. Yet, he gets all the monetary benefits from both memberships in full. The high court is just big on words against “double compensation” when it comes to lowly government gofers.

Its members also help themselves to tens of millions more upon their retirement despite the huge backlog of undecided cases they leave behind. And the sad part is, no one is holding them to account for such dereliction of duty.

Isn’t all that aggravated highway robbery, happening as it does in the “highest court of law and justice”? ARNULFO M. EDRALIN, armed_2d_teeth@yahoo.com