The pork barrel as a political weapon!

Today is the Ides of March, a phrase made famous in one of William Shakespeare’s greatest work, “Julius Caesar” as it was the day that the soothsayer warned Julius Caesar that some kind of ill would befall upon him on the 15th of March. As the Ides of March came, Caesar met the soothsayer and taunting him said, “The ides of March have come.” But the soothsayer merely remarked, “Aye indeed it has come, but has not gone.”

There is no question that art and culture has been enhanced by Shakespeare’s plays and except for the assassination of Julius Caesar, the ides of March really has no significance to the rest of the world. But then, who knows… someday the world will look at the ides of March in a different light. Here in this sick country, we’re in the midst of that Senate Impeachment trial and God knows what kind of surprise that the ides of March would hold for our trial weary nation.

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The big news in Cebu City yesterday was that report of about 200 inmates dubbed “Children in Conflict with the Law” inside the Operation Second Chance Center up in Kalunasan who did something unheard of when they turned against their guards and held them hostage. If you didn’t know, this facility is run specifically for minor offenders, which has been run under the leadership of Councilor Margot Osmeña. I have done a TV show inside this facility and have seen how it is being operated, which is totally different from the other two correction centers, like the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC) and the Cebu Province owned Provincial Detention Center.

We really can’t tell what’s going on in that facility. Gauging from the news reports, it was a way for the inmates to air out their grievances pertaining to the jail guards. At this point, may I suggest to Mayor Mike Rama and Councilor Margot Osmeña to come up with a “bi-partisan” investigative body that would get into the bottom of this problem. Operation Second Chance isn’t your ordinary jail or detention center. Its guards are specially trained to handle the needs of youthful offenders. Something must have triggered their mass action against their jail guards. So let’s get into the bottom of this so we can analyze where things went wrong.

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The Senate impeachment trial has now focused its attention on the House of Representatives when the Defense presented Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco as its first witness. What Rep. Tiangco revealed was quite damaging to the House of Representatives because he validated what we have already heard from rumors or statements from other congressmen that the articles of impeachment were presented to the members of Congress for signature and not for any debate.

This is exactly what many pundits have already written, that the congressmen were allegedly “intimidated or exerted with undue influence” to support the filing of the impeachment complaint against CJ Corona. In a way, the 188 congressmen and women who signed the impeachment complaint were those who either were rabid yellow supporters of Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, III or they succumbed to the “pressure” that Malacañang had exerted on their allies in the House. In his testimony, Rep. Tiangco merely validated what the public already knew from the other members of Congress and many other sources that no questions were entertained when they were asked to sign the articles of impeachment.

To those members in Congress who didn’t sign, they would have difficulty in getting their allocations in the socalled Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) a.k.a. pork barrel. There is no question that Rep. Tiangco was “harassed” by his not signing the impeachment complaint. Now he is even threatened by expulsion by his own colleagues in Congress.

Rep. Tiangco’s remark got an instant retort from Malacañang which issued a communiqué that Pnoy doesn’t use “pork” to pressure solons. Palace spokesperson Abigail Valte said, “We can assure that there was no pressure exerted on Tiangco because he said it himself he did not sign the impeachment complaint but he was able to get the release of his PDAF in trances. The President has said no district will be left behind. All of them should be taken care of, should be given projects and their needs are being addressed.”

Regardless of what the Palace spokesperson says, it is a given fact that in politics, the dictum everyone follows is “To the victors, the spoils!” Denying that they did not use the pork barrel as a weapon to “influence” the vote to impeach CJ Corona only shows their defense mechanism. But the reality is, those in the majority are still begging for the release of their PDAF. Those who are close to the President have already gotten theirs a long time ago.

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