Polibiz
No excuse
Much has been written about the alleged anomalous transactions entered into by the Syjuco couple -- Tesda secretary-general Boboy and Congresswoman Judy of the second district of Iloilo-- with no less than Iloilo provincial administrator Manuel Mejorada leading the gallant move to expose the couple's alleged shenanigans.
There was this report that Boboy allegedly misappropriated some of his multimillion countrywide development fund (CDF) otherwise known as "pork barrel" when he was still the congressman in the district being represented today by his wife who is herself the subject of a very scandalous issue involving the missing cellular phones numbering to about 1,588 units worth some P5 million supposedly channeled through the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC).
The amount was already reportedly "spent" up to the last centavo (what a shame) but even a single shadow of one cellular phone unit cannot be traced anymore even if the Commission on Audit (COA) will use a microscope to locate it.
Since both the Syjucos are accused of alleged malversation of public funds, in my opinion, they are not that really clean as what they are trying to convey to the public every time they are invited to grace a certain event here and in Metro Manila.
The contention is that since they are both multi-millionaires and belong to the elite circle of Makati, they cannot afford to commit graft and corruption while in public office.
This was the same excuse given by even the most rapacious and notorious thieves in government since time immemorial; even before Juan Peron of Argentina and Ferdinand Marcos became presidents which prompted one politician to quip: "Who says millionaires don't cheat?"
In my opinion, both Boboy and Judy do not deserve anymore to stay an hour longer in their respective posts because they have already sullied the offices that they represent and, by doing so, their having been implicated in a scandal that involves moral turpitude, have betrayed the taxpayers' trust and confidence.
Their being onion-skinned when criticized by their political rivals and some media people, has turned them into a veritable shooting range as every enraged taxpayer is now losing his patience with the way they handle the issues leveled against them.
Instead of producing documents to belie the issues, they issue threats of libel case to anybody who will dare tackle the explosive expose unearthed by their former employee who is now a trusted right hand of Iloilo Gov. Niel D. Tupas, Sr.
Judy cannot even convince the mysterious supplier of her "ghost" cellular phone project, Jonathan Ng to surface before a formal investigation and shed light on the decaying "anomaly."
Why are they so protective of this Jonathan Ng? It is possible that Ng knows where the bodies are buried and he could be the key to the more damning skeletons in the closet?
Until now, Judy has not issued a signed statement (not the press releases being forced to the throats of unsuspecting beat reporters for a penny by a band of paid hacks in the media) to explain why the cellular phone transactions goofed.
So far, their best efforts were to haul Mejorada to the prosecutor's office in Quezon city for a libel suit. Instead of facing the issues squarely, they even dispatched some hooligans to divert the issue; they sent a now-you-see-him-now-you-don't propaganda artist to deal with Judy's headaches with a mission not to put things in order in as far as the scandal is concerned, but to destroy reputations of those who tackle the issue and smokescreen the truth.
Now, based on these circumstances, in my opinion, I can say that the Syjucos are not really clean.