protection from what, exactly?

it just occurred to me today [yes, more than a month later] that chavit singson is running for senator of our great country. i don't know which is more appalling, the fact that he had the gall to campaign, or the fact that he still made the list of the top 25 senatoriables.

in case you've forgotten, chavit was the jueteng-gate whistleblower who landed ex-president estrada in jail. although the pages of history will probably whitewash his actual role in the scandal, what he did cannot under any circumstances be called heroic; considering that he was in cahoots with estrada the whole time and his confession was purely out of spite, it is more a testament to the inability of villains to cooperate.

normally, suspects who turn stool pigeon do so in exchange for a lighter sentence, not a full pardon. you know, considering they're still guilty of the crime and all. most probably estrada detractors wanted to give chavit an offer he couldn't refuse. and now, not contenting himself with the pleasures of the unshackled life, chavit thinks that the public is forgiving enough to assist him in the theft of even more tax money. yet given the sensitivity of the local political scene, he just may be right.

don't read this post as a defense for estrada, or a petition for his release; i'm as happy with his absence from malacañang as the next eletist. i merely think that it is rather unfair that all the other jackasses he called friends are still running around. neither someone who trades wealth for the freedom of another, nor a group that dismisses the relevance of potentially incriminating bank returns in a corruption trial should even be considered eligible to put on the robes of a public offical.

the funny thing is, they never even took them off.

sige ingat.ü 
posted by stani at 10:29 AM