In this time of pandemic where many people are getting sick or are dying or have already died and where many more are getting hungry and losing their jobs and their businesses, President Rodrigo Duterte, his loyalist Bong Go and their underlings as well as their Chinese cohorts have used the health crisis to steal the people’s money in billions of pesos.
Nothing speaks more eloquently of the symbol of corruption in this present administration than the facemask and faceshield that we Filipinos are required to wear. These protective gears were bought from their Chinese connections at grossly overpriced amounts, totaling into billions of pesos!
That this plunder of public funds was done at a time when the whole nation is suffering from the ill effects of the pandemic is appalling and unforgiving. It is a brazen act of corruption committed with impunity and without regard to human life.
The source of the funds are the laws passed by Congress and signed by Duterte known as Bayanihan 1 and 2.
While poor Filipinos get their “Ayudas” from the Bayanihan laws in small amounts, patiently waiting for their measly share to tide them over for a few weeks under community quarantines, this Duterte Administration awarded more than P8 Billion contract to an unknown small company known as Pharmally Pharmaceutical, Inc. with a small capital of P625,000 and with a fake address and its incorporators linked to a Chinese who was a former economic adviser of the President.
With the procurement of these grossly overpriced facemasks and faceshields and other medical supplies, Pharmally hit a jackpot, earning billions of pesos at the expense of the poor and suffering Filipinos.
They literally made a killing out of this corrupt transaction. While Filipinos are dying and more are getting sick, Duterte and his cohorts are laughing themselves all the way to possibly staying in power beyond 2022 with a huge election money to be able to buy the votes of the poor and suffering Filipinos.
This facemask transaction has unmasked the hypocrisy of Duterte who has vowed to fight corruption and remove officials even if there is just a “whiff of corruption” in any government agency.
We are indeed stupid as a people if we allow ourselves to be fooled again by this populist President.
Unmask him now and remove any protective shield of power that he still presently enjoys. Otherwise the virus of complacency and don’t-care-attitude of majority of our countrymen will continue to infect our nation, a virus that is more potent and virulent which destroys not just individual lives but more so the very foundation of our beloved Philippines.
Kung hindi ngayon, kelan pa? Kung hindi tayo kikibo at umaksyon, kawawa ang Pilipinas, kawawa ang susunod na henerasyon!
