After the outrage

They come in threes. Indonesia. Nepal. Are we next? Bangladesh happened some months ago so maybe we are safe. But things like these are like wildfire. Remember the Arab Spring?

- BOO CHANCO

One thing is clear. We are either very patient and peaceful. Or extremely stupid or catatonic not to react as we should when trillions of pesos are being stolen from us by our officials.

No one wants blood on the streets. But we have to do more than create memes on social media. Seeing that table in the office of the Bulacan district engineer groaning with bundles of thousand-peso-bills can raise our blood pressure to unhealthy levels. That's our money we paid in taxes.

The Congressional hearings aren't doing us any favors. We can sense key witnesses and even interrogators lying as if it were second nature to them. A pox on all their houses!

Worse, the Discayas would taint the impeccable reputation of a good public servant like Roman Romulo, their political rival, with no proof. Romulo's simple lifestyle speaks eloquently of his honesty.

It is good to see some of our society's movers and shakers raising their voices to protest ghost flood control projects. But even here, one senses some amount of hypocrisy. Many in the private business sector have benefitted from the rotten system.

The Church reaction was a little late and lukewarm. The Discaya guy was raised by priests in a convent in Pasig. They fed him food for the body but apparently nothing for the soul. Whoever is the bishop of Pasig had been eerily silent, up to now. Maybe the Discayas are big church contributors.

Cardinal Ambo David, the bishop of Kalookan was the most vocal in speaking out. But still short of what the late Cardinal Sin did back in 1986. This widespread failure of public morality is obviously also a failure of all the Christian churches in Asia's only Christian country in teaching their flock.