MANILA, Philippines — Ayuda for your signature.

Residents testified at a Senate hearing in Davao City yesterday that they were made to sign people’s initiative (PI) signature sheets with the promise that they would be given ayuda or financial assistance, food packages and other benefits.

The continuing probe by the Senate committee on electoral reform and people’s participation chaired by Sen. Imee Marcos has focused on the residents and critics of the latest Charter change push, speaking of bribery and of money clandestinely changing hands during the signature drive.

Former president Rodrigo Duterte, who has openly opposed the latest Cha-cha push, was on the guest list but did not show up at the hearing.

The Senate hearing, which lasted for almost four hours, was attended by Senators Bong Go and Ronald dela Rosa, both from Davao, and several local government officials and residents.

A barangay captain presented to the committee several documents in a green folder containing a list of residents who wanted to withdraw their signatures from the PI. “My personnel in the barangay were also considered victims. They were offered P4,000 just to gather signatures,” he said.

An official of the Commission on Elections said the signatures of residents who would like to withdraw would not be used by the Comelec.

Richell Siguera, a barangay coordinator, showed to the panel a piece of paper which she received from those who secured her signature. The paper contained a stub of AICS or Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations.

“A certain Yap gave it to her and that Yap is reporting to Cong. Migz Nograles,” Siguera added.

She said she also solicited signatures from her neighbors.

She admitted that she did not explain the PI to her neighbors as she herself has limited knowledge about it.

“They told us to keep the coupon and wait for the money. They have yet to receive any amount yet,” Siguera added.

When Dela Rosa asked the residents if they would have signed the signature forms without being assured of coupon, they replied “no sir.”

At the hearing, the senators also warned the People’s Initiative for Modernization and Reform Action (PIRMA) to submit its list of donors of the P55 million spent for television advertisements promoting PI.

Marcos said PIRMA led by its convenor Noel Oñate should submit the list required by Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III.

“I have a stern warning for PIRMA, the legal counsel are here, you need to advise your client about the donations lists that constitute until today, three days after the fact, donors list, BIR receipt or whatever documents. Nothing has been submitted so far. Submit it at the earliest possible opportunities,” Marcos said before suspending the public hearing.

Marcos said many people wanted to participate in the hearing but there was limited time.

She encouraged barangay officials to submit more evidence to prove cases of bribery and misuse of government funds.

During the previous hearing, Sen. Francis Escudero asked Oñate about the cost of the printing of the PI forms but he claimed he was not familiar with it.

“What I know is the figure in the airing of the advertisement which cost P55 million, ABS-CBN, TV5 and GMA7.”

No shift to parliament

House Majority Leader Mannix Dalipe has again assured Senate counterparts and the public that Resolution of Both Houses No. 6 on Cha-cha would not lead to a shift to a parliamentary form of government.

Dalipe said there is no truth to the claims of Duterte that Cha-cha would also change the country’s political landscape.

“With regards to suspicion that we are trying to do this to have somebody become a PM (prime minister) or something, records will prove (otherwise),” noted the representative of Zamboanga City.

The lawmaker added that what any doubting individual could do is to check the RBH 6 documents that the House of Representatives had submitted to the Senate.

“So I don’t know where it came from – the allegation that changes will be political. It is clear that what we transmitted is for (amendment of) economic provisions,” he maintained. Dalipe also challenged those making such accusation to show evidence.

According to Duterte, once the parliamentary form of government is established, Speaker Martin Romuldez would be installed as the prime minister and he would be succeeded by presidential son Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos.

Deputy Speaker and Quezon Rep. David Suarez said what they see is the “narrative against development and progress is consistent.”

“They always want to put political color to the constitutional amendment that we are proposing, when in fact what is on the table are purely economic amendments,” Suarez added.

He cited as basis some senators’ claims the House is bent on abolishing the Senate, when this is just a “figment of their imagination.”

Suarez said this is “nowhere to be found in RBH No. 6.”

“These were the same arguments they have always raised, like they will be abolished and all. Another is the insinuation that we will perpetuate ourselves in power, it’s really the same narrative thrown against the proposal to push for Charter amendments,” he added.  

Suarez also said the Senate’s probe has turned into a “witch hunt.”

“After two hearings, no witnesses have come forward to say that they received money or were bribed to sign the petition calling for Charter amendments,” he added.

Suarez maintained it is a “shame that the probe continues despite having no witness who testified that they were paid” in exchange for their signatures.

The Quezon lawmaker earlier asked the Senate to just “refocus their attention” on the discussion and expedite approval of the Resolution of Both Houses 6 which is aimed at amending the restrictive economic provisions in the Constitution.

He underscored the need to focus on “more pressing issues facing the nation.”

According to Suarez, the “substance and direction” of the inquiry is questionable since there is no witness to confirm the allegation, even in the investigation being done in Davao City where the signature buying was reportedly rampant.

He also raised concerns over the resources and time being spent on the probe.

“While it is crucial to investigate any allegations of misconduct, especially those that could affect constitutional processes, the consistent lack of corroborative testimonies suggests that this investigation may not be the best use of our legislative body’s time and resources,” he added.    

Perilous, dangerous

Meanwhile, one of the framers of the 1987 Constitution described as “perilous and dangerous” the ongoing push for Charter change initiated by the House of Representatives, while a former chief justice maintained there is absolutely no need for one.

Former Commission on Elections commissioner Rene Sarmiento, a member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission, and retired chief justice Hilario Davide Jr. submitted their separate position papers on the PI to Marcos’ committee.

Sarmiento said “constitutions, though imperfect, are fragile democratic instruments that must be protected and safeguarded with vigilance at all times.”

“With numerous challenges facing the country today, internationally and domestically, what is needed at this time is for us and for our elected public officers to take heed the advice of Claro M. Recto when he wrote that the ‘best amendment of the Constitution would be the amendment of our lives, the amendment of our attitudes, outlook and actions, the realization that we are free men and the resolution to live and act as free men,’” he said.

“Yes, attitudes, outlook and attributes that uphold the principle that ‘public office is a public trust,’ that affirm social justice and human rights, that seek to promote the common good of Filipinos,” he noted.

Davide, for his part, reiterated his “stand, repeated many times in the past whenever there were attempts to amend or revise the 1987 Constitution, that there is no need to do so and there are no compelling reasons for that.”

“As one of the commissioners of the 1986 Constitutional Commission who drafted this Constitution, I know it very well, and in explaining my affirmative vote for the final draft of the Constitution at the plenary session of the Commission, I openly declared that this is the Constitution I am willing to die for,” Davide added.

“Verily, the people’s initiative to amend the fundamental law of the land – the 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines – is a sacred sovereign power which should be exercised with absolute good faith. It should never be tainted with or stained by any vice, defect, trickery, deceit, misrepresentations, wickedness and corruption of any kind,” he said.

The University of the Philippines community and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines have also voiced their opposition to Charter change. — Sheila Crisostomo, Diana Lhyd Suelto, Ghio Ong, Elizabeth Marcelo

Third of a series

THE third part of this series focuses on President Rodrigo Duterte. The controversial human rights violations resulting from Duterte's war against illegal drugs, which killed thousands, both innocent and guilty, is one of the greatest blights on his legacy defining his presidency. Recently, this caught America's reading public with the publication of a book by Patricia Evangelista, a young, feisty Filipino journalist and now best-selling author. Her "Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country" (Penguin, Random House) landed on the New York Times' 10 Best Books of 2023. The Atlantic Monthly describes it as a "...riveting book... an extraordinary testament to half a decade of state-sanctioned terror."

This column will stick to the main theme of this series, profiles of corruption post-Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. Offhand, this is a cursory study of the evils of well-publicized scandals that have been relegated to the backburner. Our intent is for the current president Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to revive the investigations of these corruption cases. Having gone full circle from his father's martial law regime to his more open and democratic administration, my thesis is if he could resolve these scandals and bring the perpetrators to justice for the remaining years of his presidency — even for this alone — he could still be a good president, nay, a great one! And perhaps in the process, he could rehabilitate his father's image — or at least mitigate the nadir of governance in the annals of Philippine history.



Pharmally, Covid-19 and PS-DBM-DoH

Among the many blights of the Duterte regime, this is perhaps the most shameful. For the simple reason, as I wrote back then: "All these occurring during the country's highest regime of pain and trauma, the continued harvest of dead souls through mismanagement of the pandemic and its resultant economic devastation. The repercussions are wide and long-term, and the aftermath is grim. The leadership of today's branches of government will be answerable to the generations to come."

Excerpts from my past columns: "...when Covid-19 struck in early 2020, government rushed in to introduce grandiose-sounding laws — the Bayanihan to Heal As One (and Two) — by granting the president emergency powers. These laws were altogether an appropriate and worthy response. But as always, the devil is in the details. It allowed the primary tools for corruption: negotiated bids on contrived tender failures and sleight-of-hand funds transfers — with leakages somewhere in between; employing obscure patsies 'backed by the powerful.'"

The Senate Committee on Accountability of Public Officers and Investigations (blue ribbon committee) performed its mandate, and the chairman, Sen. Richard Gordon, up for reelection and who previously ran for president and lost, saw the opportunity to build up his political stock. As is the wont of numerous Senate blue ribbon committee hearings — in aid of legislation — Gordon and his cohorts used the investigation as a platform to grandstand the discovery of facts for later litigation, secondary. An afterthought!

Blue ribbon findings

What was established by the blue ribbon was that the scam was perpetrated in the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE), with the culpable bureaucracy appallingly exploiting a world crisis brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic. The details have by now been digested by the public that the Department of Health (DoH), with the acquiescence of Health Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd, illegally transferred P42 billion of its funds to the procurement service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) to outsource the bidding and purchase of PPE and other related, pandemic supplies; that the PS-DBM bought overpriced surgical masks from various suppliers but favoring the under-capitalized (P625,000 paid-up) Chinese subsidiary Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. (Pharmally) with a zero track record, but topping more than P8.7 billion in government contracts.

The paper trail led to financial transactions and bureaucratic slippages that indicated the Chinese perpetrators, along with their local business partners and government officials, may also have been conduits of drug money laundered through these operations. Heading this cabal was Duterte's "economic adviser" Michael Yang, a shadowy mainland Chinese figure, Pharmally's financier and guarantor, linked to illegal drugs, known by his many labels — consultant, facilitator, bagman, pagador, or locally, bugaw (pimp), depending on the package offered and bought. The stink has diffused to high heavens and even the presidency and will not dissipate on Duterte's simple denial of innocence, contrived anger and say-so, demanding that he be taken on faith.

In August 2019, Christopher Lao, an obscure lawyer but well connected to the Davao mafia in Malacañang, was appointed undersecretary at the DBM and headed the PS-DBM. As soon as he settled down, he began executing these anomalous transactions. This patsy was at the center of this maelstrom.

Investigations postscript

Despite the overwhelming evidence presented at the blue ribbon, Senator Gordon was unable to elevate his report to the Senate plenary, as it lacked the requisite number of signatures from the senators. According to Gordon, the senators refused to sign the report because it included a recommendation for the filing of charges against President Duterte. The president's Senate allies came to his defense. The report died at the committee level.

In August 2023, Rappler revisited and published a postscript of the biggest corruption scandal of President Duterte now that the pandemic for which this corruption gestated has dissipated and the lockdowns imposed by the president are now just a not-so-distant memory.

First, President Duterte has remained untouched by this mess, as has his longtime aide and now Sen. Christopher "Bong" Go, who was earlier linked to the Pharmally scandal through the DBM undersecretary, Christopher Lao, allegedly his stooge (Go denied this vehemently). No cases were filed against Secretary Duque, and he quietly returned to the private sector teaching at the family-owned Lyceum-Northwestern University in Dagupan City. Michael Yang, Duterte's erstwhile "economic adviser," is now back in China. The biggest fishes got away! Sen. Raffy Tulfo, in October 2022, named Yang as allegedly being among the smugglers of agriculture products into the country, adding the appellation "kingpin" of vegetable smuggling, with operations all over the Philippines.

Rogues' gallery

The Ombudsman's special panel of investigators had recommended the filing of three counts of graft against Christopher Lao. He resigned from PS-DBM in 2020; he was required to pay a slap-on-the-wrist fine equivalent to a year's salary. His alleged accomplice, Warren Rex Liong, group procurement director of PS-DBM, was ironically awarded an appointment as overall deputy ombudsman, which could open him to charges of a conflict of interest. In March 2023, the Ombudsman ordered Liong's preventive suspension along with Paul Jasper de Guzman, the PS-DBM procurement manager.

Among the Pharmally directors and executives were Huang Tzu Yen, chairman, and Zhang Bingquiang, all wanted in Taiwan for financial crimes. The Pharmally cabal completes the Chinese connection; siblings Twinkle and Mohit Dargani, Pharmally president and corporate secretary/treasurer, respectively, and Linconn Ong spent time in detention either at the Senate or in the Pasay City Jail. They were released when the Senate session was adjourned.

The cases of these perpetrators, the small fishes are languishing in the labyrinth of the Philippine justice system. And the big fishes? Waiting for the time that Blind Lady Justice gets Alzheimer's.

Second of a series

THE first part of this series on the riveting Philippine corruption tales portrayed the stark display of naked power by President Noynoy Aquino when their Cojuangco family heirloom, their crown jewel, the Hacienda Luisita, was threatened and sold for a pittance upon the decision of Chief Justice Corona's Supreme Court. But this egregious act was further exacerbated by corrupt senators blatantly selling their votes to impeach Corona. As to the participation of some lawmakers in the pork barrel scam, Art Aguilar, a Harvard colleague, had to remind me that "the Supreme Court ruled the DAP unconstitutional, yet no senator was sanctioned ... no CoA disallowance! Meantime CoA [is] running after govt employees who got peanuts as allowances and separation pay." How true! There is nothing the Filipino can do about this unless President BBM uses the remaining years of his watch to revisit and correct similar anomalies inflicted on the country by all administrations before him. As to Cory Aquino, Ferdinand's nemesis, perhaps BBM's greatest legacy he leaves behind in an attempt to restore his father's image is to put in proper perspective her own.

PCGG

Upon her assumption to power, President Cory's first act was to promulgate Executive Order 1, creating the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) under the slogan "Nakaw na yaman, ibalik sa bayan," tasked to recover the ill-gotten wealth that the Marcoses, relatives and their cronies in the oligarchy amassed over two decades.

The PCGG was the Cory government's leading-edge instrument, given a free hand to investigate and pursue cases in court, sequestrations, and compromise settlements with the Marcos family, their cronies, and the oligarchs whose assets appear in their names. They were entrusted with negotiating with foreign governments and banks to facilitate the recovery of Marcos assets abroad. And they took over the boards of these sequestered companies, many of which were milked with profligate travel allowances and unliquidated cash advances. These companies have gone bankrupt.

But the recovery process of the ill-gotten wealth was itself marred by anomalies and corruption. President Cory, who was a politician's wife but not one herself, was thoroughly unfamiliar with the arcana of governance and the pragmatism of political compromise, admitting that she was a "mere housewife" and solely concerned with restoring the democracy that was lost during the Marcos regime. Although President Cory was never personally corrupt, her naïveté allowed an environment where corrupt cronies and oligarchs proliferated, manipulated and soiled her saintly image.

She, therefore, relied on the advice of the members of the transitory disinherited elite, the class she was born into, and appointed many of them to sensitive positions in government. More tragically, she depended on the "Kamag-anak Inc." for guidance on how to govern and recover the Marcos loot. It is believed that much of this ill-gotten wealth was siphoned off to these people. She let loose the foxes on the chicken coop.

And there were questionable compromises and directives. Foremost of which is the return of assets of the pre-martial law elite families, resurrecting the old oligarchy. The Lopezes got back Meralco and ABS-CBN, the sale of Philippine Airlines to her nephews, and the return of the PLDT to the Cojuangco relatives. And a festering issue was a reported 38 sequestered companies of Kokoy Romualdez (Imelda's brother) worth billions allegedly sold to President Cory's brother-in-law Ricardo "Baby" Lopa for $250,000, days after Marcos fled the country (Seth Mydans, The New York Times, Oct. 17, 1988). In his defense, Lopa intimated that the Marcos family had seized the companies from him when Ferdinand came to power 20 years earlier. This could be true, but Cory, the paragon of morality, should have acted like Calpurnia, Cesar's wife — above reproach.

CARP, anti-feudal instrument

But the issue that impacted heavily on the populist image of President Cory was her flagship Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) that was meant to address our feudal land ownership. Cory was enamored with what South Korea, Taiwan and China did in the 1950s and 1960s to liberate the landless, particularly the farmers and the rural sector, from the shackles of poverty towards the path of economic development. The Philippine version of CARP was likewise fashioned to redistribute agricultural land to farmers and provide them with support services to ensure their productivity and welfare. This necessitated the breaking up of large estates, some of which dated back to the Spanish encomienda and were awarded to a multitude of small farmers, appropriately compensating the landowners.

In the 19th century, Japan's Meiji Restoration redistributed land from feudal lords to small farmers, which led to increased agricultural productivity, rural development, and the growth of a strong agricultural sector and eventual industrialization that even propelled Japan's economy to underpin a war and its "Greater East Asia Co-prosperity sphere."

These successes were in total contrast with the Philippine CARP implementation, which was disfigured by anomalies and corruption, hindering its effectiveness and leading to discontent among farmers. There were unreasonable delays in actual land distribution to the Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs), bogged down by bureaucratic red tape and non-cooperation by the landowners themselves. The bureaucracy, government officials, the middlemen and the landowners colluded to manipulate land valuation.

CARP perversions

To hold on to their estates, owners sought exemptions from CARP rushing conversion of huge swaths of these productive agricultural lands to non-agricultural or commercial and residential purposes, precipitating an inordinate spike in real estate development, housing subdivisions and new town centers — displacing thousands of tenants and farmers, driving them to city slums looking for alternative work.

And those ARBs lucky enough to be new owners of plots suffer from a lack of government support services, unable to fully utilize the land they received due to a lack of necessary infrastructure, credit and technical assistance. This resulted in low productivity and limited economic benefits for the beneficiaries and their eventual destitution.

What is unconscionable was the introduction of the stock distribution option (SDO), an alternative to actual land distribution allowing landowners to incorporate their holdings and distribute shares of corporate stocks to agricultural workers instead of transferring actual land ownership to them. This scheme circumvented land redistribution and maintained landowner corporate control over agricultural resources. Farmers were coerced or deceived into accepting the SDO, leading to continued landlessness and exploitation.

In effect, this undermined the core principle of CARP of distributing land to the landless, emancipating them from the shackles of a feudal system that bred more poverty, deprivation and social injustice. SDO perpetuated the dominance of landowners over the agricultural sector.

The effect on the farmers and the body politic was instantaneous, sparking widespread protests and resistance from farmers' organizations and agrarian reform advocates, and the motley allies of Cory hammered out against the martial law regime that inspired the EDSA People Power Revolution of 1986.

This anomalous scheme, evasion of CARP on a grand scale exempting her family's Hacienda Luisita, had the full backing of President Cory. The erosion of the dreams and promises of EDSA and the betrayal of the Filipino perhaps started from this point on.

Looking back, Ferdinand and Cory were faces of the same coin, manipulated by the eventual beneficiary — the oligarchy.

First of a series

WHILE still fresh in our memories, we review some of the great accounts of corruption in the country. These are cautionary tales for BBM, who is perceived to be taking his administration on a crusade to whitewash his father's deeds. I don't blame the son for undertaking this admirable filial duty. This partly explains why BBM has to constantly travel all over the world, brandishing another face of the Marcoses.

Perhaps he is out to repair Macoy's reputation abroad and reverse the iconic symbols of profligacy during the martial law years, among which is a wretched parody of an image imprinted globally — his mother's 3,000 pairs of shoes. But all these matters do not matter if the son revisits the corruption issues of his predecessors, from Cory to the Deegong, learns from them, and even — my fervent wish — pursues and rectifies these travesties. Even if BBM does nothing in the remaining four years of his presidency but resolves these corruption issues and punishes the miscreants, he will be on his way to becoming a great president.

This column begins a nostalgic but bizarre review of corruption, most of which were investigated and, for a time, caused their perpetrators their 15 minutes of fame and then either quashed, relegated to the back pages, forgotten, or eclipsed by subsequent scandals. The events are not sequenced in chronological order but organized as to their impact on our political culture, defining each post-Ferdinand E. Marcos administration.

PNoy and Corona

A case in point is the Chief Justice Renato Corona affair during President Noynoy Aquino's watch. To refresh our memories, toward the end of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's presidency, she appointed Corona as Supreme Court chief justice upon the retirement of Reynato Puno. This so-called midnight appointment was controversial as it came on May 12, 2010, shortly after President Aquino 3rd's election on May 10. Arroyo installed a close ally purportedly to protect her from possible corruption cases during her administration. President Aquino preferred another ally Maria Lourdes Sereno — who, in fact, was appointed to replace Corona but was later impeached herself during the next administration of President Duterte.

Bribery allegations

The ruling of the Corona-led Supreme Court that President Nonoy Aquino's family Hacienda Luisita (4,916 ha) was to be distributed to 6,000 farmer-beneficiaries and reversed the P5 billion payment to the Cojuangco clan to the original valuation of only P200 million, and making this resolution "final and executory," may have sealed Corona's fate. "It would be the height of irony if the Cojuangco family lost Hacienda Luisita when Noynoy Aquino became president." (Carmen Pedrosa, PDI, April 29, 2018.)

The Senate, acting as an impeachment court, found Corona guilty of culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust. Based on trumped-up charges, he was removed from office, making him the first chief justice in Philippine history to be impeached and convicted.

But this is not the end of this sordid tale. One of the senator-judges, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada revealed in a curious privilege speech that discretionary funds to the tune of several billions were used to influence the proceedings against Corona, with President Noynoy openly pushing for his conviction. Jinggoy stated, "...after the conviction of the former chief justice, those who voted to convict were allotted an additional P50 million ... I maintain, however ... that I stand by my decision in my vote to convict the former chief justice and assure our people that I was never influenced by this incentive which came after the fact."

No serious investigation was made on the allegations of bribery, for who will investigate the powerful who hold the levers of power, backed by the presidency. There were 20 senators who voted to convict and three to acquit. The three were Joker Arroyo and Miriam Defensor-Santiago, now deceased, and the third was Sen. Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.

Of the 20 who voted Corona "guilty," eight are still sitting senators — the Cayetano siblings, Alan Peter and Pia; Escudero, Lapid, Legarda, Koko Pimentel, Revilla Jr. and Jinggoy Estrada — who spilled the beans on the alleged bribery. The other 12 are Angara (deceased), Drilon, Guingona 3rd, Honasan, Lacson, Osmeña 3rd, Pangilinan, Sotto 3rd, Trillanes 4th, Villar, Enrile and Recto.

DAP/PDAF scams

Three years after the Corona debauchery was practically swept under the rug, another scandal erupted. The scam involving the PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund), also known as the pork barrel, was a series of corruption scandals involving the misappropriation of government funds intended for development projects.

The main architect of the PDAF scam was a well-connected businesswoman, Janet Lim-Napoles, who set up fake nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to siphon off public funds, which were allocated through the senators and congressmen's PDAF.

Some of the senators involved in the Corona impeachment and bribery fiasco were implicated in the PDAF scam: Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla. These honorable gentlemen were accused of channeling their PDAF allocations to Napoles' spurious NGOs in exchange for kickbacks. These three were later arrested, detained, and faced trial on plunder and graft charges.

Enrile was initially detained, but the Sandiganbayan allowed him in 2018 to post bail for humanitarian reasons. Enrile, who will be 100 years old next month, is currently the chief presidential legal counsel in BBM's government.

Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla were both arrested in 2014 and faced trial for plunder and graft charges but were released on bail after three years of detention. The Sandiganbayan acquitted both of the plunder charges but found them guilty of graft while sitting senators. Both were sentenced to a minimum of six years and a maximum of 10 years in prison, and both remain free on bail as they have filed appeals against their conviction.

These three plunder defendants who were up for reelection in 2019 were allowed to run for office as they were not administratively sanctioned by the Office of the Ombudsman, and the judgment of conviction on several graft cases was not final and executory. In the subsequent mid-term elections, Enrile lost, but Estrada and Revilla won and are currently sitting senators of the land.

The same fate has not befallen the other co-accused and those implicated in the scam, including Richard Cambe, the former chief of staff of Revilla; Jessica "Gigi" Reyes, former chief of staff of Enrile; and Janet Lim-Napoles, an ordinary influence peddler albeit a criminal genius but did not have the kind of status accorded the powerful. In July 2023, the Sandiganbayan found her guilty of graft and malversation of public funds in relation to the PDAF scam, sentencing her to a total of 70 years, five months, and 13 days in prison.

These dramatis personae of the two corruption issues, the Corona impeachment bribery case and the PDAF scams, are powerful people gifted by the Filipino electorate to these prestigious positions: exemplars of the nobility of public service. After cursory investigations and some convictions that may go nowhere, they took advantage of the massive publicity surrounding these scandals and parlayed this notoriety to propel them to greater heights in the political firmament. All these transgressions forgotten and perhaps even forgiven.

This, too, is a sad indictment of the Filipino electorate.

AT the start of a new year, people are normally buoyant that things will get better, discarding the practices of the old with new year's resolutions that are soon discarded before the first month is out. My view is contrarian: 2024 is no better than 2023. It could get worse. Then, we shall also discard 2024 and hope for a better 2025. We enjoy deluding ourselves in the looming unknowns to escape the realities of sordid and unbearable knowns.

Wars

The world can't do without wars and conflicts. It is the nature of the beast revealed over the millennia fraught with immense human suffering, loss of life and long-lasting traumas. Conversely, they are the engines of growth and, in their aftermath, produce spurts of significant progress, as in the two world wars. Foremost of these are economic growth and industrialization as countries rebuild and modernize their economies. From the ashes of war, Germany, Japan and the Soviet Union rose, and America assumed the role of the first true hegemon of the modern century. America understood only too well the value of war and its aftereffects and thus invested heavily in defense industries and continued to mobilize resources for future war efforts, maintaining its reputation as a warmongering state. Technological advancement surged as dividends of war: radar, laser, nuclear energy, GPS and computers — the lifeblood and arteries of the modern world. And the internet!

The two post-world war periods saw medical advancements and techniques in saving lives: surgery, prosthetics, cloning, the discovery of antibiotics and penicillin, and improved methods for treating infectious diseases and vaccines, which helped 21st-century medicine understand and defeat Covid-19. Paradoxically, it is a double-edged sword as it added years to human lifespans, prolonging lives, wreaking havoc on the world's population, bringing to the fore the scary reality of a 'Malthusian catastrophe' — a disequilibrium between overpopulation against the Earth's capacity to feed itself.

Major wars also resulted in political restructuring and redrawing of national boundaries, with dominant nations gobbling up smaller ones, leading to the birth of new countries, alliances and changes in political systems. For a time, World War 2 resulted in a Cold War with America and the defunct Soviet Union (USSR) on opposite camps, advocating contradictory ideologies — democracy and liberal capitalism on one end and totalitarian-socialist-communism on the other and countless permutations in between — including the dreaded theocracy, government of priests, imams and rabbis deriving its authority from religion and the sanctity of their religious text — the Quran, Torah and the Bible. This convergence has reared its ugly head in the Middle East.

And more wars

However, we deny and close our eyes to the root cause of the Palestine and Middle East conflicts — religion, not a simple misinterpretation thereof but translating its faith-based perversions into political action. These faiths have long shrouded themselves with the cloak of geopolitics, and there seems to be no solution to these conflicts in the near term unless men of goodwill and, more importantly, moral leaders with secular predispositions take control of their governments and champion the human dignity of the adversaries.

But the foreseeable future belies these expectations. As we speak, Hezbollah, the Islamic "party of God" in Iran, is flexing its muscles and may enter the fray, sensing beleaguered Israel as weak and vulnerable even with America's sponsorship. Expect 2024 to witness an escalation with the West Bank and Lebanon in the northeast getting into the act. More killings. More blood.

Ukraine may be in its death throes as the Republicans in America awaiting the presidency of Donald Trump may no longer want to finance Ukraine. And NATO is drained out. With Ukraine abandoned by America, Putin resurrects his image in Eastern Europe, sowing renewed fear in the old Eastern alliance now within NATO's tentacles.

China's playing chicken with its daily jet sorties violating Taiwan's airspace and establishing its de facto nine-dash-line in the South China Seas, challenging the presence of America's formidable 7th fleet in what Xi Jinping considers as China's lake, is a disaster in the making.

All these could flare up anytime, escalating the current wars or even igniting new ones. But short of resulting in nuclear Armageddon, it is nothing comparable to what has been staring us in the face — the big elephant in the room.

Climate change-global warming

For the uninitiated, climate change will spell the end of the human species if not mitigated. The United Nations' definition of climate change: "refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. These shifts may be natural, but since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels (like coal, oil and gas), which produces heat-trapping gases."

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that the Earth's climate is unequivocally warming. Since the pre-industrial era, the global average temperature increased by 1.1 degrees Celsius. Unless mitigated, it is expected to continue increasing to a tipping point, the threshold beyond which the deterioration becomes irreversible, even if, by that time, the factors causing this temperature increase are eliminated.

Scientists disagree on the exact tipping point. But this is irrelevant, academic and stupid. The imperatives are putting in effect the Paris Agreement protocols to veer away from the tipping point. This international treaty on climate change adopted in 2015 covers climate mitigation, adaptation, and finance. Agreed to by almost 200 countries, its basic aim is "to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius."

The overall strategy is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Some of the key stipulations include shifting away from fossil fuels and switching to renewable energy (solar, wind); promoting energy-efficient practices, technologies and infrastructures reducing energy consumption; and using electric vehicles and improving public transportation.

Protect and conserve existing forests, undertaking large-scale reforestation, effectively capturing and storing carbon dioxide to offset emissions. Implement sustainable farming practices, reducing deforestation for agriculture and encouraging regenerative land management techniques. And to incentivize businesses, particularly in the developed world, to implement policies like carbon pricing and cap-and-trade systems.

Where we are at

Now, the reality is that the Paris Agreement requires monitoring and reporting of carbon and greenhouse gas emissions, but it does not have the ability to force a country to reduce emissions. The law-making system of each country has preponderance over the decisions made according to the Paris Agreement. Even peer pressure and soft power are lame instruments for coercive sanctions.

The biggest transgressors currently responsible for the most emissions are the world's two biggest economies, China and America. In June 2017, President Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement. And China abandons its commitments.

Planet Earth is currently not on track to stay below the goals of the Paris Agreement. And scientists with tongue-in-cheek declare that we are on track to the sixth mass extinction in the Earth's geological history.