Disclosures meant to oust Bautista?

Batas  Mauricio /

I ALREADY read the affidavit of Patricia Bautista detailing her alleged discoveries of the wealth of Chairman Juan Andres Bautista of the Commission on Elections, and my worst fears that the affidavit cannot be used to charge the chairman with graft and corruption and hidden wealth are confirmed.

As I already wrote here earlier, no wife or husband shall be allowed to testify against their spouses, without the spouses’ consent, except when the case where their testimonies are to be given are their cases against one another. Here, the contemplated cases against the Chairman are not cases by Patricia versus Andy. The same thing is true with the supposed impeachment complaint.

Now, if Patricia’s affidavit and testimony cannot be used in any criminal cases against her husband, and that it cannot also be used in impeaching him, why did she and her lawyers insist on executing it and making it public anyway? To pressure the Chairman to resign from the Commission would be the most likely objective! Now, who could be orchestrating the Chairman’s exit from the poll body?

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Two radio broadcasters I admire the most for their persistence in their work of unearthing the truth in any scandal are GMA DzBB’s Orly Trinidad and Fernan Gulapa.

The two brought up the possibility of regularly changing all officers of the Bureau of Customs to put a stop to the pernicious corruption in the agency that enabled some P6.4 billion worth of shabu to be released without any hassles.

Interviewing a guest during their late afternoon show, Orly and Fernan lamented the corrupting influence that the Bureau seems to exert on its officers, even on those who had to rebel against government before, to fight corruption.

The two then suggested that, perhaps, all Bureau officials should be changed as often as possible to prevent them from fraternizing with smugglers, drug lords, and other evil personalities.

Orly and Fernan had a point there, but, the real problem is that, anyone who has no fear and love of God would become easily corrupted, not only in the Bureau but in the entire government as well.

The need therefore is not to find replacements, but to instill in everyone in the Bureau of Customs, and even in everyone in government and in the country, fear and love of God.

The reason graft and corruption, illegal drugs proliferation, criminality, smuggling, and all other evil acts are happening in the Philippines and in the world today is the pervasive lack of fear and love of God among humanity at present.

Since many no longer fear and love God, they have become capable of even the most despicable acts.

This is the reason why we see initially-good people — people who have waged wars against corruption all their lives — suddenly having no qualms to pocket billions in government funds, or to accept bribes from criminals, drug lords, smugglers, and other syndicates motivated by evil.

It is clear their professions of fear and love of God are nothing but a pretense, perhaps to entice their election or appointment to some important and juicy government positions, so that they themselves could steal and plunder later on.

The same thing is true with private citizens who are in business — they project an outward appearance of piety, even if they are raving wolves inside, devouring hapless victims along the way.

What can ordinary citizens like us do, to remedy the situation? The strategy is not to look at the people who have descended into corruption and criminality on account of their lack of fear and love of God.

We should look at ourselves, and realize that it is us who effect the change that would turn even the most hardened criminals back to being godly. What we should do, by ourselves and by our family members if possible, is to learn God’s commands by persistent reading of the Bible, and then obeying all of those commands daily.

The change that will come upon us, descending from the grace of God, will become a conflagration of goodness that will melt all others and turn them into individuals loving and fearing God.

E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com