THE SENATE IN chaos with Duterte-senator-fanatics in warpath mode(?) may possibly adversely affect the smooth, impartial, fair, transparent trial of VP Sara Duterte for her crimes against the people by the Impeachment Court.
Alarming for the people for so long is the negligence by the topmost leadership, senators, congressmen and other public officials until today are: the missing P20/kg rice in the market; ‘gas-diesel dagdag-bawas-dagdag-bawas’ cycle; price increases of food and families’ basic necessities and reduced/lost earnings for drivers/operators of jeepneys and other land transport facilities; NTF-ELCAC’s red/terrorist-tagging and AFP attacks (enforced disappearances, illegal arrests/detentions, killings, terrorized/displaced peasant families) against human rights defenders, activists, journalists, lawyers and peasant community advocates; and the unjust detention of more than 770 political prisoners.
UNATTENDED ISSUES
Moreover, what are likewise long-unattended issues by the current Bongbong Marcos —Sara Duterte administration and those in Congress, affecting millions of Filipinos: severe lack of employment and livelihood opportunities for millions of working-age Filipinos; unfair workers/farmers’ wages, considering that a family of 5 persons actually needs to earn P1,200 per day to enjoy decent living; unchecked fake news and widespread disinformation, benefiting crooked politicians; unaddressed educational needs of elementary and high school students, to raise their learning proficiencies (in math, science, reading/language, and critical thinking) to international educational standards; healthcare system needing improvement; long-delayed justice-delivery – resulting in great injustice to victims, given PNP’s inefficiency in apprehending fugitives –Atong Ang, ex-congressman Elizaldy Co, and at least one big drug lord to minimize or finally stop the proliferation of drugs in the market.
The most important fugitive that needs to be caught by the PNP as soon as possible is Sen. Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa, because his apprehension and trip to the Hague to be detained in an International Criminal Court (ICC) detention cell will most likely console his idol, the months-long ICC jailbird, Rodrigo Roa Duterte. Note that Sen. Bato de la Rosa is the principal co-perpetrator of Rodrigo’s crimes against humanity, with his bloody “War on Drugs” campaign resulting in about 30,000 extra-judicial killings (EJKs).
ALLOCABLES
An urgent issue the people have been looking forward to, given the obvious findings that the Congress’ Committee on Justice has unearthed from its TV-live-streamed investigations on the DPWH’s flood-control and infrastructure projects is the urgent action of filing cases which will convict and jail the big ‘fishes’ (senators and congressmen) clearly involved and guilty of robbing the people’s money via their “allocables” in the DPWH projects, worth millions or billions of pesos. (Names mentioned in mainstream media include Senators Joel Villanueva, Jinggoy Estrada, Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero, former Sen. Ramon Revilla, ex-Representative Elizaldy Co, former Speaker Martin Romualdez, and others who have managed to hide themselves from the authorities.)
No less important as a serious problem faced by millions of Filipinos and needing solution is the decades-long problem of poverty currently causing much suffering – unable to enjoy dignified living — to more than 60,000,000 Filipinos. And this situation is glaringly alarming, given that such is in contrast to what a senator’s monthly salary/allowances, paid by the people’s tax money, that is, amounting to more than P300,000!
The monthly salary/allowances of a congressman will not be far in the thousands, compared to that of a senator. And to realize that these so-called “honorable” public officials are mandated to come up with laws and programs that will improve the living conditions of their fellow Filipinos.
When will Pres. Bongbong and VP Sara, senators and other public officials seriously work on solving the myriad problems adversely impacting the majority of the Filipino people? Hopeless, because corruption reigns nationwide?!