It is not the first time that President Duterte has defended or praised corrupt behavior, his own or that of his closest allies, but this time—maybe this time—many more people are taking notice and raising the alarm.
Contrary to his original declaration, made several days before he took his oath as president in 2016, that he did not want to hear about corruption, "even a whiff or whisper," the President has not only defended the sensational, irregular Pharmally contracts; he has even signaled to the senators investigating the irregularity that he would declare war on them.On its face, the basic facts of the Pharmally irregularity are staggering: A recently incorporated company with a paid-up capital of only P625,000 is awarded pandemic-related contracts worth at least P8.7 billion. Those contracts led the national government to buy allegedly overpriced personal protective equipment, face masks, and other necessities. Given the dismal state of the national government's pandemic response, these revelations of probable pandemic profiteering add shock to public despair.
As the Senate investigation into the irregularity deepens, the facts have only become more shocking.
And the President's response? All-out offense-is-the-best-defense, using all his old tricks. (See "Digong, pataka," 10/17/2017.) The appeal to pity ("luoy"), by offering to resign if the contracts are proven corrupt. The resort to intimidation (acting "bugoy"), by threatening to get back at some of the senators taking the lead in the investigation (e.g., singing old, discredited refrains against Senate Minority Leader Frank Drilon). The use of personal insults, a form of macho braggadocio ("bugal-bugal"): telling Sen. Dick Gordon to lose weight, describing Sen. Ping Lacson's "hairdo" (and Gordon's too) as "strange." Not least, the deployment of nonsense and outright disinformation
("pataka")—asking the public not to believe in Senate investigations, because supposedly nothing happens with those inquiries; commanding the Senate not to "investigate programs which are ongoing." That last one is one of the biggest fabrications he has made, because it completely subverts the principle of accountability. Don't investigate potentially anomalous programs because they are ongoing? Pataka.
What is at stake here? For the Filipino people, it is accounting for pandemic pesos in the middle of the worst public health crisis the country has ever faced. It is a means to force the national government to face up to its continuing failure to control the pandemic. But for President Duterte, it is preserving a syndicate of favored businessmen—including one of the most favored of them all, the Chinese national named Michael Yang who once, unaccountably, served as the Philippine president's special economic adviser—from public scrutiny and legal liability.
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In "The corruption at the heart of Dutertismo" (12/4/2018), I pointed to (just) three of the President's "many admissions against self-interest."
He had vigorously defended Solicitor General Jose Calida's "continued participation in government biddings" despite the express constitutional prohibition against Cabinet officials being "financially interested in any contract with" the government. He had categorically admitted that when he was mayor of the city that is now inextricably linked to his name, he received real estate and expensive vehicles from his constituent, religious cult leader Apollo Quiboloy. And he had repeatedly praised his common-law wife Honeylet for her business success in Davao, which he attributed to her hard work (this is true, and a fact with which no one disagrees) and to her status as the mayor's wife.
"Besides," he said in Bisaya, "who would try to compete against the wife of the mayor or President? Ah, now she's really rich."
As I argued then, because corruption is the misuse of public office for private gain, the President was either condoning corruption or admitting it. But these admissions were made at the height of his power, when it seemed possible that he could even do away with the 2022 elections altogether and
engineer a constitutional coup.
On reflection, the President's words on June 22, 2016, were actually amphibolous: they were grammatically ambiguous. This was what he said: "Huwag na huwag talaga akong makarinig na corruption, [not] even a whiff or whisper …" This was said in the context of a warning to government officials; it was clear then that he meant, "I really do not want to hear about corruption [by government employees, not] even a whiff or a whisper."
But on its own, and in the context of his indefensible defense of the Pharmally contracts, we can re-read his statement in literal terms: "I really do not want to hear about corruption." The implication, now, is that the real and clear meaning is: "If I hear about corruption, I want to shut down all coverage of it. Not a word, not even a whiff or a whisper. If that doesn't work, I will attack those investigating it."
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The national interest in the Pharmally issue is as clear as the presidential seal on Michael Yang's business cards. By defending Yang and attacking the (recently emboldened) Senate, the President of the Philippines is unapologetically siding against the
Philippines.
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On Twitter: @jnery_newsstand; email: [email protected]