"In societies where Robbing Hoods are treated like a celebrity it is but natural to expect political parties to act like a Mafia syndicate" Political Jaywalker "In a nation where corruption is endemic people tend to confuse due process with aiding and abetting criminals" Political Jaywalker "War doesn't determine who is right, war determines who is left" Bertrand Russell "You have just one flash flood of money, you keep your people poor. It's like a time bomb and it's scary" Philippine Lawmaker

Imee Marcos, Manny Villar, & JV Ejercito’s Offshore Secret Bank Accounts

Where is the outrage?

Imee Marcos and her sons was the first to be exposed by PCIJ owning secret offshore bank accounts followed by Manny Villar and JV Ejercito. These are just the initial installment of people with secret offshore bank accounts, expect more names to follow considering that what the International Consortium of Investigative Journalist (ICIJ) has uncovered dwarfed the WikiLeaks in comparison. Lest some pathetic narcissist politicians fool you people into believing this is a local demolition job to spoil their chance of winning a pillaging privilege seat in public office, take note that this is an international investigation. 
While it is shocking to discover that there are Filipino politicians even the disgraced ones whose dictator father has been deposed for the pillage and plunder of the Philippines, this is really not just about them but an investigation into the workings and how the offshore banking system can be taken advantage by all sort of international criminals. Lest some local politicians fool themselves and the people that the world revolves around them this is a cache of 1.5 million files of 120,000 offshore companies measured in gigabytes that is 160 times the size of WikiLeaks. A treasure trove of information needing 86 journalists from 46 countries to sift through the documents that goes back to 30 years of transactions.

It’s a veritable who’s who of the international rich and famous and of course the infamous like con men, corrupt politicians, tax evaders, money launderers and international criminals but what is downright pathetic if not excruciatingly comedic is the reaction of some named characters and their shallow partisan in the Philippines. Typical response was that of JV Ejercito questioning the “timing” of the revelation which he claims was a “demolition job” for his being a top contender in the senatong errr senate election. Excuse me but is he saying the 86 journalists from 46 countries should wait for the results of the Philippine election before they divulge their findings? Pardon me while I barf at the shameless narcissism but does he really think he is that important to the international community of journalist?

Where is the outrage? Is it because people are busy trying to make a living or scrambling for the crumbs thrown by the candidates in the patronage and personality popularity contest we mistook for electoral exercise? Anyway, a look at the date of the opening of the offshore secret bank account of JV Ejercito shows it was in 1999. JV is a private citizen at the time the account was set-up who became the mayor of San Juan in 2001, where did he get the money to set up a dollar account and a secret offshore bank account at that? One thing we know is his ex-convict father Erap given presidential executive pardon by a potential soon to be convict Gloria Arroyo was the president when he opened the offshore account. Some wagging tongues are asking if said secret offshore bank account has anything to do with his public quarrel with his half-brother Jinggoy, but I dare not go there.

The revelation on Imee Marcos secret offshore bank account only means that it is a mistake or plain stupidity for the people to have allowed such travesty of letting the deposed dictator back to the country and worse allowing them to once again rule their fiefdom. While the like of these politicians like Imee Marcos continue to “praise” the OFW’s contribution to the Philippines with their billions of dollars in remittance to the country they shamelessly and hideously send them back out as fast as the OFWs can send them into the country. Now where is the outrage?

Unfortunately, no one really goes to jail for failure to disclose their assets in their SALN because our authorities are too dumb or was it too beholden to even consider following up on investigating if those assets are legitimate or not which is more likely illegitimate. After all why hide it in public if it was legitimate? Guess who are the first to complain about the endemic culture of corruption? Let us see if this administration is really up to the challenge but then again I doubt it that they are really serious in their straight narrow path to righteousness when they failed to prosecute the former Thief Justice errr CJ Corona, so can we expect anything different? I hate to think that we are just a big joke and truly a basket case in Asia, can we for once show our outrage and demand that those implicated be prosecuted without let-up until they pay for their crimes?
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1 Speak Out:

Political Jaywalker said...

Nah........ I am thousands of miles away from Payatas...

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