Dirt, dirt everywhere

SHE SAYS

Dinah S. Ventura

08/06/2008

Again it’s one man’s word against another.

Our memories are still fresh with the “may 200 ka dito” fiasco when another expose is once again leaving our ears ringing. This time it involves a Court of Appeals (CA) justice, and the other, a Makati businessman. Between them is a ghostly pile of money and a ruined “friendship.”

Angry, one man accuses the other of lying. The other does not bat an eyelash and says the same.

Who is telling the truth? (And what does the word mean these days, anyway?)

In the latest brouhaha that erupted from the tug-of-war between the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), businessman Francis de Borja came out with the allegation that CA Justice Jose Sabio had named the amount of P50 million as the thing that would make him rule in favor of the Lopez-run Meralco group rather than take a supposed government offer of “a seat on the Supreme Court and money” to favor GSIS.

Sabio had earlier opened the can of worms when he said someone had acted as emissary for the Lopezes to bribe him with P10 million bribe to inhibit himself from the case.

Sabio, by the way, ended up not deciding on the case anyway, which favored Meralco, anyway.

De Borja, meanwhile, has been adamant about the veracity of his story, even expressing his willingness to accept the judge’s challenge to have a lie detector test with him in spite of the fact that the results of such a test would not hold in court as evidence.

This whole bribery deal feels like skeletons rising from a crypt, and it’s not even Halloween yet. In this country, electrifying issues fizzle and die without the benefit of a blessing from the people, and as expected, when there is no closure, new ghosts will keep rising from the black hole of rotten, decaying things.

From jueteng bribes to missing fertilizer funds, from broadband deals gone kaput to suspicious swine scams — are we never to be free from degrading issues of dishonesty and corruption?

If we let all these issues overwhelm our senses, it would seem no one is “squeaky clean” anymore. Of course we know fully well this is unfair to those who are trying to keep their names untainted by actually doing the right thing, and also unfair for both Sabio and De Borja, who, we all know, remain innocent unless proven guilty.

It’s just that another bribery controversy is making our teeth grind in frustration. I tell you I’d rather watch a tennis match than the volley of words between the two. Talk of money allegedly changing hands between public officials and private parties has become quite common, since one explosive issue after another had made us all aware of the huge amounts of money moving in and out of alleged secret accounts to “gift” bags.

There is so much money around, and yet government agencies are always complaining of a lack of funds, which is why public services are never quite satisfactory or sufficient. If we were to get all these illegally siphoned resources together and use them for projects benefiting the populace, perhaps we might even believe the government’s statements that progress is at hand.

It’s hard enough to cope with our individual cares for our leaders to keep wasting our time and the country’s resources with a mess such as this. When government accuses the private sector, for instance, of skating over the law, it makes one ask the same thing of the accuser. How dare anyone invoke the law when they themselves trample all over it, too? And now the department that people look to for balance and justice is in turmoil because of this new scandal.

The questionable integrity of the executive, legislative and now the justice department is further weakening our nation.

We, the people, would be left with nothing to hold on to if this goes on.

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