Sunday, September 14, 2008 Guimbatan: Big Fish, Little Indians, and Crying Babies By Mike Guimbatan Underview
WHEN a fisherman catches a big fish, he sells it and gains just enough but the one who benefits most is the one who lavish it in his diner plate.
Like in the latest national headline news, which reads: "Palace distances self from SC ruling vs 5 CA justices." Only one judge whose case is not even related to the Meralco-GSIS fiasco was dismissed.
Poor CA Justice Roxas who received the punishment regains a tarnished image of the CA, while the four others will be allowed to resume their powerful telephone management.
But who gains from the CA telephone disaster? Will it not be the appointing authority who will put somebody to replace CA Justice Roxas to augment the pool of obedient species on-call anytime? Along with the other big fish in the pool, they will be on-call as vanguards to safeguard their sponsors of case involvements even after their term ends.
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In the local "Lifestyle" news, the fissure between the legislative and the executive has been elevated into a higher level of entertainment with the investigation of 10 officials under lifestyle check by the Office of the Ombudsman.
Who could be the 10 little Indians? Start counting your fingers based on your instinct and your guess are as good as mine.
Lifestyle check simply attempts to examine if a public official's income accumulated in all his government service years is equivalent to his net worth. This is a kind of government examination where many officials will fail. Unfortunately, most of those who failed manage to take remedial examinations and nobody went to jail.
But lifestyle check is another common strategy to pacify big mouths, placate open eyes and deviate public attention from prevailing social ills.
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In the local comedy page, barangay officials of the city were united for the first time to oppose Bingo sa Barangay claiming that the fund raising activity is a form of gambling and is spiritually unhealthy.
The village chiefs were enlightened and they suddenly found peace in themselves. They even called on spiritual leaders to pray on a signed manifesto opposing the Bingoteng. The ABC president whom they earlier elected was isolated with distrust.
But wait a minute... were the barangay chairmen morally enlightened or merely shortchanged from the proceeds of Bingoteng? Were they opposed to the legal Bingoteng but okay with the illegal jueteng? Or are they crying because they were not given their corresponding ration? The solution in arithmetic is called divided by...
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Be it big fish, little Indians or crying babies, money and power is always the common denominator. Give power and they will get money... give money and they will get power... and when they have both... they will buy the truth to set them free.
