BY ROMMEL YNION
THEY are simply there in the dark, lurking, waiting, salivating, and casting a moist eye on the next prey. No, not even night-vision goggles can enable even the most skillful detectives to detect them. Using the latest electronic gadget or computer technology, they remain undetected, always hunkering below the radar screen, not even the stealth helicopters and the most battle-tested Navy Seals can zero in on them – yes, even with the aid of Predator drones.
No, they are not aliens nor ghosts nor some clairvoyant crackpots. They are the new breed of men and women who have now taken control of our government, milking it dry, gorging its flesh to the bone, and draining it of all its energy which has been scarce in the first place.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you the “racket” scientists. No, this is not a case of misspelling. It is really spelled “r-a-c-k-e-t”, a noun modifying the scientists who have now been experts in the new branch of science that has helped the likes of David Copperfield look like amateurs in the world of magic.
For both science and magic have been welded shut in this new branch of science, simply called the science of racketeering. It is really a science that probes into the unknown especially when the unknown reeks of money, of gold, of bottomless pit of funds that cannot be depleted even if stretched into eternity.
“He is an evil genius,” Senator Joker Arroyo, perplexed, befuddled no end, his forehead turning into a whirlpool of flesh, his eyes fixated on a blank wall, said, describing the father of racket science, President Benigno S. Aquino III.
Impersonating Edwin Markham’s man with the hoe, Senator Joker now leans upon his knowledge of law to discern the currents that have led this nation astray, bowed by the weight of “racketeering” issues whirling around the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) funds arbitrarily released by Malacañang only to its allies.
“Narining ko Malacañang is saying (DAP) was allowed by the Constitution and the Administrative Code. Yung Constitution does not say that. Very clear the President may augment, the word is augment, by law. In other words, may batas, may enabling law to authorize to spend. Wala yung enabling law na yun,” he said, “gazing upon the ground, the emptiness of ages on his face, and on his back, the burden of the world.”
Shaking his head in disbelief, Joker added that the Administrative Code, which was issued during the term of the late President Cory Aquino under which he was executive secretary, “does not authorize” the government “to spend that kind of money no matter what they say.”
Senator Arroyo swore on the altar of God that not even the mother of the racket-scientist-in-chief used that particular administrative code to justify any arbitrary use of savings from other government agencies especially in the absence of any enabling law.
Imbued with the ideal that only he and his ilk are not capable of any wrongdoing, the absence of any evil bone in their existence justifying any of their actions, whether unconstitutional or not, President Aquino released DAP funds to the tune of, at least, Php 150 billion only to his political allies (and also to their erstwhile allies who in a spirit of convenience once cooperated with them in the orchestrated impeachment of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona) as if they and they alone have the monopoly of virtue on this planet.
Oh yes, not even the high and mighty Butch Abad can do no wrong. Described as a “reformist” by no less than his boss himself, he is Martin Luther who is tasked to eradicate the malodorous practice of selling indulgences in exchange for a one-way ticket to heaven without any prolonged layovers in purgatory.
No matter how much venom the populace has spewed on his space as the architect of this racketeering phenomenon called DAP, Abad remains untouchable, even calling on all his fellow racket scientists to hold the fort until the eye of the storm roars past them, its wrath fading into whispers sweetened with oodles of cash.
And so, the DAP issue rages, with questions roaring through the mind of the populace: Why were funds released only to administration allies in Congress all in the name of economic development? Are legislators who received largesse from Malacañang economic whiz kids capable of perking up our economy? Or aren’t they supposed to be only focused on crafting laws for our country?
If DAP funds, now deemed unconstitutional by no less than the Supreme Court itself, were meant for economic progress, why were they given to legislators instead of government agencies tasked to build infrastructures around the country? Doesn’t exposure of these funds to legislators leave them open to all forms of hanky-panky?
After the Supreme Court ruling that these DAP funds are unconstitutional, isn’t the president himself accountable for the unconstitutionality of his acts? And since the constitution is the fundamental law of the land, isn’t the violation of it deemed automatically illegal and therefore, punishable under the law?
With the DAP scandal now engulfing the nation, the racket scientists still remain in their natural habitat characterized by mirages, smokescreens, and yes, darkness, now busy employing spin doctors to mislead media, manipulating not only media but also government agencies to induce investigators to end up in no-man’s land where they will be left for dead, their ideas dying natural deaths, forgotten in the dustbin of history.
And while history itself fades into oblivion, the racket scientists just do what they do best – smiling from ear to ear like hyenas catching a glimpse of their prey while meandering around a circuitous route to the banks now overflowing with taxpayers’ money – not only to get their shares of the booty but also to have enough ammunition to lead investigators astray, clueless, directionless, and aimless./PN
