Test of wills
It can’t be helped but to compare the swift manner in which Rody acts on allegations of corruption on his officials and Noynoy’s unwavering defense or shielding of all his allies.
Last Monday night, Rody sacked Interior and Local Government Secretary Ismael Sueno after receiving allegations from Sueno’s underlings about the official enriching himself.
It was a rough exit for Sueno whom Rody’s spokesman Ernesto Abella said the President had lost his “trust and confidence” in the Interior Secretary.
The dismissal came apparently as a result of a probe Rody himself conducted on Sueno’s graft and corruption allegations.
Abella said Sueno’s ejection from the Cabinet serves as a fair warning to government officials that Rody means business in his anti-corruption crusade.
Abella recounted that Sueno has been instrumental in convincing the President to run for election which showed the will needed for Rody to just chop off the head of one of his solid allies.
“This did not deter the President from pursuing his drive for a trustworthy government by addressing issues like corruption,” Abella said.
Over the weekend, Mr. Duterte issued a hint about firing an oficial as he a first issued a warning that he will fire somebody due to “a whiff of corruption.”
“I’m about to sack somebody because of corruption. The son of a bitch is so stubborn,” the President said in Camp Evangelista at Cagayan de Oro City.
Early last month, Mr. Duterte’s campaign spokesman Peter Laviña was also reportedly sacked as head of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) due to alleged graft practices. Malacañang, however, said he resigned.
The yellow Noynoy, in contrast, was an epitome of double-standard in running to ground his political opponents even through trumped up corruption charges such as in the legal assault using the so-called P10 billion pork barrel scam only against the three senators when initially implicated was a long list of legislators and Cabinet men of Noynoy.
During his term, the phrase kaibigan, kaklase, kabarilan (friends, classmates and shooting range buddies) was coined to symbolize the selective justice he practices in which the KKK was protected at all cost.
The archetypal KKK was Budget Secretary and Liberal Party (LP) strategist Butch Abad, whose culpability in the pork scam was undeniable after alleged scam architect Janet Lim Napoles named him as her mentor in setting up the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) racket.
Noynoy dismissed the claims, saying Napoles was lying but otherwise believed her when she implicated the three senators.
Alleged pork barrel brains Janet Lim Napoles, in a signed confession, tagged Abad as her mentor in putting up the PDAF racket particularly in the use of non-government organizations to siphon off government funds.
Abad was also proven to have been the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) author through twisting the law by ascribing non-existent powers to Noynoy in creating the Palace’s P150 billion money pool.
The SC struck down certain acts in the DAP which were all undertaken at the level of Abad at the Department of Budget and Management and for which he should be held accountable.
The SC revised ruling on the DAP also required that the DAP authors be held accountable for the unconstitutional acts in its creation.
The SC decision said good faith on authors of DAP should be proven in a proper court.
Lately, yellow disciple Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales issued what appeared to be a preemptive case against Abad recommending usurpation of legislative charges which was an insult to those who filed cases seeking accountability for DAP since all it imposes, if Abad is proven guilty, is P1,000 in fines and imprisonment of at most three months.
Then there are the several other LP allies and hangers on that Noynoy protected from being held accountable for their irregularities under his term while mouthing the “tuwid na daan” (straight path) mantra.
The huge difference between Noynoy and Rody is that Rody translates his words into actions despite his legendary mouth.
