Just Joking?!

BIG JOKE by Ninez Cacho-Olivarez

The Daily Tribune

03/27/2009

To this day, the Ombudsman is still trying to pull wool over the nation’s eyes, creating that impression that it is going after the big guns in corruption.

In a press conference, Ombudsman officials announced that from their initial findings, the office will be conducting a preliminary investigation of certain former public officials, such as then acting Secretary Florante Soriquez and some current undersecretaries and assistant secretaries, to determine probable cause.

What? In all that time — and a long time it was too — all that the Ombudsman’s office did was to determine who were the various officials seated during the time when these projects went through bid rigging?

That shouldn’t have even taken a week, if that was all that were was for that “announcement” of their having had an “initial finding.” prior to conducting a probe.

Translated, this merely means that a probe has not even been conducted on these mentioned officials, which in turn means, a longer time for the Ombudsman to determine probable cause against these officials — if it ever does, for this case to now be elevated to the Sandiganbayan court. In the last two months, with all the evidence from the World Bank (WB) on bid-rigging, this is all the Ombudsman produced with still a preliminary probe to be conducted and on the small fry?

It is almost certain that, if a probe is conducted to determine probable cause, even Soriquez will be off the hook. After all, he does have a fount of knowledge about the corruption that can be linked to Gloria, and even Big Mike, if left to fend for himself.

But even longer, and never, it would seem, would the Ombudsman’s office touch the First Gentleman, or even then Public Works chief, Simeon Datumanong. But then again, this is expected since the FG is a sacred cow.

The anti-graft officials claimed that this probe on the FG would come later, as they will be calling on the WB witnesses who had linked Big Mike to the alleged collusion and bid-rigging syndicate.

The Ombudsman’s officers must think they could easily fool the Filipino people by making it appear that Big Mike is not above the law and will also be investigated for his alleged role in the WB road projects’ bid-rigging.

But this is not going to happen, because, as these officials know, the three witnesses are all foreigners and are all out of the country, and hence out of the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman.

Who are they trying to fool when they say they will be calling these “witnesses” who testified before the WB on this bid-rigging?

Even if the Ombudsman sent them a summons to attend whatever hearings there would be scheduled on this matter, does the office really believe that they will return to the Philippines to testify against Big Mike?

Who would go against Big Mike in that Ombudsman’s office? Certainly not Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, who won’t touch a hair of his head, even if the evidence stares her in the face. Neither would she touch Gloria’s hair either, after her term is up, that is, if Gutierrez insists on sticking it out until 2012. Certainly it won’t be her officers either, since they are hardly independent and suck up to her, doing whatever she tells them to do, and say. Besides, they wouldn’t even dare do that, since they would not only be kicked out of their offices, but would also be charged for some crime.

But there went Malacañang, claiming it is relieved that the case will now go to court — even when this is not so, since a probe is yet to be conducted.

The Palace said the court is the proper forum for those involved to face the music.

But Malacañang also knows that the so-called proper forum, whether the Ombudsman or the Sandiganbayan court, can easily be made to toe the line and clear the Arroyo loyalists of any and all charges.

The time is not now to charge any of the big fish in Malacañang. The time to do it is after they are out of power and grace of the Filipino people, who, like the Romans of old, will not rest until they see and taste the blood of the Arroyos and their corrupt cabal, who have screwed the Filipinos for the past eight years and counting.