National artist for hypocrisy

Everybody is talking about numbers, about how impossible it is to impeach Noynoy Aquino for authorizing the release of billions upon billions of pesos as socalled Development Acceleration Program funds, an act that the Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional.

Noynoy cannot be impeached because, as they say, no congressman is going to endorse any impeachment complaint filed in the House of Representatives. And granting that there is one, it will never pass the vote in plenary for transmittal to the Senate for trial. The House, after all, is full of Aquino dependents.

But even granting that the vote gets railroaded, as in the day when then president Joseph Estrada was impeached, a trial by a Senate 20 of whose members have received their share of DAP funds is not likely to rule for conviction.

And so, as they say, it all boils down to an impossibility by numbers. And I agree. But I do not agree that simply because it is impossible, an impeachment complaint should not be filed, or since two have in fact been filed, that it should not go through the process.

As I have written earlier, I do not care if the impeachment process does not prosper. What is important is that Noynoy, the son of a hero and a saint, has finally found himself in a situation where he can actually be impeached. Noynoy has been unmasked as a fake. And to me, that is enough.

It is enough for me that an impeachment complaint can actually be filed against Noynoy, and that such a complaint is filed not as a matter of baseless frivolity but anchored on an actual culpability that the Supreme Court has very clearly defined.

Filing an impeachment complaint against Noynoy is the right and moral thing to do. Whether it prospers or not is of no moment. What is important is that the whole world gets to know the truth about what is going on in the Philippines -- that it is not being led a knight in shining armor but by a wolf in sheep's clothing.

It is not necessary to remove Noynoy. He can finish his term for all I care. After all, his is already a crippled leadership from now on. And the beauty of it is that his undoing is due to nothing else but his own undoing.

Noynoy got tripped and crippled not because of some great tackle by his enemies but because, in his own relentless portrayal of them as dirty vile sinners, he forgot to check the complexion of his own face. As it turned out, the great self-portrayed anti-corruption crusader is just as corrupt as everyone else.

It is not necessary for him to pocket some money for his own gain. Stealing is not the only measure by which corruption is defined. Go check your dictionary. That he illegally amassed money and used it to curry favors is a more corrupt act than actually receiving the money and pocketing it.

Here is why -- a person who accepts tainted money and pockets it may be corrupt, but at least he makes no pretense about it. But the person who amasses money illegally and gives it away in an illegal manner to win favors is more corrupt if he pretends there is nothing wrong with it, that everything was in good faith.

Noynoy as the illegal giver of illegally acquired money is more corrupt that the receiver even if the receiver pockets it because Noynoy knew from the beginning that what he is doing is wrong. His pretense of good faith is limp, selfserving, and a big fat lie.

Noynoy cannot claim good faith or pretend that everything is above board because he himself, while still a senator, actually filed a bill that sought to stop then president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo from doing what he is now exactly doing.

For Noynoy to see the same thing as bad if Arroyo is the one doing it and then sees it as good if it is now he himself who is doing it is the highest form of hypocrisy. Noynoy has elevated hypocrisy to an art form. Move aside, Nora Aunor, here comes Noynoy the National Artist for Hypocrisy.

And since Noynoy is said to be lusting after the Nobel Peace Prize, maybe someone, anyone, should nominate him for that as well. Noynoy, after all, has just made himself highly qualified for the award. As the main authority in approving the DAP, he is responsible for buying peace and acquiescence among legislators.

‘For Noynoy to see the same thing as bad if Arroyo is the one doing it and then sees it as good if it is now he himself who is doing it is the highest form of hypocrisy. Noynoy has elevated hypocrisy to an art form.’