“OUTRAGEOUS, unacceptable. And unbelievable.”

That’s how the usually unflappable Sr. Mary John Mananzan of the Association of Major Religious Superiors dubbed Blue Ribbon Committee’s report on the broadband-ZTE scam.

The report fingered the President, the First Gentleman and cronies. Fine. But it also nailed those who blew the whistle: consultant Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada and businessman Jose de Venecia III.

Catholic nuns took Lozada and family under their wings after he spilled the beans. "(Lozada) wanted the truth to come out…And this is what he gets,” Sister Mananzan said. “How is that possible?"

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It is possible Sister. “Onli in da Pilipins.”

“In this country, those who horsewhip money changers out of the temple often end up excoriated,” Sun.Star noted. “The ultimate perversion is to beatify the crooks and crucify the whistleblowers.”

Recall Ensign Philip Pestaño of Cebu. This PMA officer denounced hauling of illegal lumber and drugs on Navy boats. He was killed in his cabin. Suicide, the Navy ruled within 24 hours. Murder, concluded a Senate probe, led by the late Senate president Marcelo Fernan.

In 12 years, the Military Ombudsman hasn’t budged beyond securing counter-affidavits. Gilbert Teodoro leaves the Defense Department without resolving the Pestaño slaying.

In 2001, Bernard Liu and Ananias Dy testified on four huge drug shipments funneled into Cebu. Liu fingered his then-employer Peter Lim, who was never charged. Bonneted gunmen salvaged Dy in 2006.

The cops never nailed Dy’s killers. Instead, they arrested Liu for drug shipments. “If a whistleblower is jailed, who’d want to sit in the witness chair?” Liu moaned.

"Governments must create an environment that encourages, instead of penalizing, citizens who denounce venality," declared the Philippines and 134 countries attending the 9th International Anti-Corruption Conference in Durham, South Africa.

Half a decade after Durham, “the kind and extent of support that a legitimate whistleblower should be able to expect (remains) unclear,” says the Asian Institute of Management study: “Whistle Blowing in the Philippines: Awareness, Attitudes and Structures.”

Equitable Bank’s Clarissa Ocampo revealed President Joseph Estrada signed as “Jose Velarde” for crony William Gatchalian.

Acsa Ramirez exposed Land Bank tax scandals. NBI agents shoved her into a police lineup while cameras panned on President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s smile. That photo op squelched a thousand potential whistleblowers.

FBI’s Mark Felt, as “Deep Throat,” leaked the Watergate papers to the Washington Post. That ultimately forced President Richard Nixon to quit. Daniel Ellsberg leaked the “Pentagon Papers” to New York Times, compelling review of the Vietnam War.

Protection of whistleblowers from retaliation is spotty. Filipinos shirk confrontations. “Don’t get involved for peace of mind” is the counsel peddled. But "every failure to recover proceeds of corruption," the Durham Statement warns, "feeds its growth."

The Philippines needs “an explicit policy that will govern whistle blowing,” the AIM study asserts. Indeed, when whistle blowers end up as the accused, it’s time to ask, as Sister Mananzan did: Is today’s policy to beatify the likes of the ZTE broadband crooks as accusers?

That would be the ultimate perversion.

(juanlmercado@gmail.com)