MANILA
How do the children of government officials suspected or convicted of stealing the people’s money feel about their accused parent(s)?
Often children of public officials on the dock for corruption sit behind their accused parent during court hearings or at congressional inquiries to show support and solidarity for their elder.
But how do they really feel? Are they embarrassed? Ashamed? Or still proud of their parent?
The most recent family to be so accused here are the Binays, said to be wallowing in riches amassed allegedly from illegal dealings during their long hold on power in Makati City.
The Binays have taken turns ruling the country’s premier city for decades now, alternating as mayor, starting with the current vice president, Jojo Binay, to his wife and currently son Junjun. One daughter is in the Senate and another in the House of Representatives.
They’re accused of massive theft of the people’s money and owning property worthy of the nouveau riche.
In neighboring Mandaluyong City former mayor Benjamin Abalos, too, has been accused of influence-peddling when he was in national government service (as chairman of the Commission on Elections). He figured in the infamous NBN-ZTE scandal some years back, allegedly brokering a project to automate government offices across the country and receiving kickbacks for his services. Then-President Gloria Arroyo and her husband Mike were also accused of participating in facilitating the deal.
Military generals and police brass also have been implicated in shady deals involving millions of pesos in government money being siphoned off to their personal accounts. One of the generals couldn’t handle the shame and committed suicide.
Public officials at various levels have also been accused, and some convicted, of financial wrongdoing over the years. The most recent high official to be convicted in a Senate impeachment court is Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Earlier, in what seems to be another lifetime ago, Pres. Joseph Estrada was forced out of office by people power and later convicted of plunder. He was pardoned by successor Arroyo who, by another twist of fate, is currently in hospital arrest for criminal charges.
And of course, the biggest money scandal to hit the country in recent times is the now-notorious pork barrel scam, worth P10 billion, supposedly masterminded by Janet Napoles. Her web of corruption allegedly involved senior congressional personalities, including Sens. Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla who are currently in detention.
I often wonder how the families of people ensnared in big money scandals feel. Are their spouses, for example, able to sleep soundly at night as they suffer through their loved ones being accused of such shameful deeds? How do the children feel and behave in public — at school, in their workplaces? How do their relatives, friends and neighbors treat them in their predicaments?
When I see family members putting on a poker face in public — especially at hearings involving their accused loved ones — I ask myself how they must be feeling as they brave the glare of television lights and cameras and the public’s accusing stares?
A daughter of Janet Napoles famously posted on Facebook photographs of herself in the lap of luxury, boasting about the good life. A young member of the Binay family posted a photo of hers taken “at our place in Batangas,” presumably referring to the so-called Hacienda Binay, an expansive estate south of Manila supposedly owned by Vice President Binay.
How Napoles’ daughter must now regret her postings, incriminatory as they were of their family’s ostentatious display of wealth. And the Binay daughter’s surely innocent post added to the people’s suspicion that they do own fabulous properties.
But don’t they reach a point when they question the source of the luxury in their lives? Especially the older members of the family who are able to discern whether it’s justifiable to possess wealth and expensive toys and things that are obviously beyond their family’s legal incomes.
Or do they become blind to reason and choose to be blissful in forced ignorance even as they see the signs that their parent(s) can’t possibly be legally earning the money that keeps them in extreme luxury?
Or do they become accustomed to living in style that, in their wish to live in such swanky way forever, they fool themselves into believing that all is legit?
The same question can be asked of all public officials who steal from the people, from barangay level to mid-level positions to senior posts in government. Do they train themselves to be so shameless as to not worry about their consciences bothering them as they acquire wealth illegally?
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