Insatiable greed of Filipinos

By Mortz C. Ortigoza 

If Senator Leila de Lima cited “human frailties” in committing the criminal case of concubinage when she had illicit relationship with her married driver, “human frailties” could be cited why government officials commit corruption, a malady since time immemorial.

If dangerous drug pushers mended their ways and avoid narcotics because they are being assassinated, I think assassination would be the deterrence for government officials to shun corruption.

BRIBERY.Bureau of Immigration officials Al Argosino and Mike Robles hold P30 million out of the
 P50-million alleged bribe money from  Gambling TycoonJack Lam on Tuesday, December 13, 2016
16 days after they received it in a restaurant last November 27, 2016. PHOTO CREDIT: mb.com.ph

Remember two top officials in the executive branch were ambushed to death recently.

How many government officials would die in assassination because of their insatiable greed to pocket public funds?

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Son of a gun, the axiom in Filipino “Ang kapwa magnanakaw ay galit sa kapwa magnanakaw” has a grain of truth among beleaguered officials of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) who were accused by their briber to have received P50 million.

Retired police colonel Wally Sombero said he gave P50 million to BI Deputy Commissioners Al Argosino and Michael Robles in exchanged of the release of the 600 of the 1,316 Chinese nationals detained at the BI.

 These chinks worked at the 300-hectare Fontana Leisure Parks and Casino in Clark, Pampanga of gambling tycoon Jack Lam without working permits for aliens.

The P50 million pay- off was recorded by the security cameras at the second floor and the cameras set up by the men of BI Intelligence Chief  Charles Calima at the parking lot of the of City of Dreams in Paranaque.

Calima, a former police general did not trust Argosino and Robles in the transaction, thus he did not only video recorded them in the consummation of the crime, but even attached an audio recording inside the dress of Sombero, a retired police colonel.

One of the paper bags, reports said, that contained the ten million pesos “exploded” due to the weight of the bills inside.

 BI Intelligence Chief Calima was dragged on this bribery scandal because he told the duo that their transaction with Sombero was recorded. To keep the act from exploding before the public, Argosino and Robles gave P18 million to Calima while P2 million went to Colonel Sombero.

Despite the division of loot, the bribery was exposed because the two BI Undersecretaries asked for another P50 million thus Sombero divulged the initial buy out to Inquirer columnist Ramon Tulfo.

“We want to have the opportunity to see the extent of corruption at the Bureau of Immigration,” Argosino said in a press conference that they received the monies because they were building a case against Macau business tycoon Jack Lam.

What?

Argosino was probably citing “a case build up crap” because he and Robles, who were both lawyers, were exposed almost two weeks after they received the monies.

If your intention Mr. Argosino was pure, you had already entrapped Sombero after he gave the P50 million at the City of Dreams.

Argosino and Robles were fraternity brothers of President Rodrigo Duterte while Calima was the appointee of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre.

The scandal that ensued at the BI only shows that despite the “incorruptibility” of the president of the Philippines, it does not mean that his appointees at the government are as clean as a whistle.

Several if not many of those high ranking officials he plucked to the present dispensation have corruption issues in the past.

Who was that ambassador the president appointed who had strings of corruption issues? His allies in the last presidential election emphatically denied that this person was not part of his presidential campaign team.

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Leila de Lima received last Monday a fete as one of the 100 Foreign Policy Global Thinkers awardees in the United States.

She was included in the category "Challengers" and was honored as a global thinker for "standing up to an extremist leader” like Duterte.

"I'd like to think it's because of my stance against the extra judicial killings and other policies ng ating kasalukuyang administrasyon (of our current administration)," De Lima declared.

So Leila now is a human rights “hero”? I want to puke hearing her received the Foreign Policy award and moralized: "Napaka-deplorable po ng sitwasyon natin sa Pilipinas, hinggil sa usapin ng karapatang pantao," she said. "Walang katapusan, araw-araw na pinapatay in the name of the war on drugs... Talaga pong tinutukan natin from day 1."

Holy Casserole and Guacamole, de Lima’s moralizing when she was the epitome of sexual immorality in the Philippines when she confessed in a TV program that she had an affair with a driver-body Ronnie Dayan.

The driver even told Congress that she, when she was the country’s Justice Secretary, had "pinag-uubos niya na kami (sexual relationship?) with her other security details.
Not to mention that during her stint as Secretary at the Justice Department, narcotics trading in the national penitentiary proliferated like crazy. Dayan and the drug lord prisoners there fingered her in public hearings to be their protector and recipient of their bribes.

“What is happening to our country, general? To quote then Vice President Emmanuel Pelaez posing to then Quezon City Police Director General Tomas Karingal after he (Pelaez) was ambushed in the same city.

Do we have a dearth of human rights champs that we have to settle for a Leila de Lima, son of a gun a senator of the Republic, leading the moral crusade against the spate of killings in our country.

What happens to our country, my dear Procopio?   

An immoral senator leads the moral fight for us in our country.

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)