I'VE been convinced so only in the past two weeks with the shocking revelations in social media of two legislators and their inexplicable wealth. Amazingly, they themselves pointed to their suspected corruption by sporting ultra-expensive designer bags and watches in social media posts, as if this is normal for Congress representatives. Thank God for this new media.
I am referring to Marikina 2nd District Rep. Stella Quimbo and Manila 6th District Rep. Bienvenido Abante. The two second termers' postings on their Facebook accounts (which they have since blocked) and in other accounts have become viral since two weeks ago as they showed them flaunting designer bags (the likes of Chanel, Dior, Goyard and the coveted Hermés limited edition Birkin), expensive watches (the likes of Patek Philip and Rolex), a P1 million Cartier cut necklace in the case of Quimbo, and, in the case of Abante, the latest model Mercedes-Benz, P40,000 designer belts and even top-of-the line assault rifles.
Their collection of such expensive items would have cost them at least P100 million each, which they could not have afforded with their annual salaries of P250,000, even if you include their Congress expense accounts for 12 years (both are second termers).
As if to say, "Well, f**k you, people, so what?" Quimbo and Abante, in effect, would have said, as they didn't say a word to explain what most people would brand as brazen, ill-gotten, inexplicable wealth. They didn't claim that the photos were fake or that the designer bags and ultra-expensive watches were fake.
The two representatives' colleagues and especially the House speaker, President Marcos' cousin Martin Romualdez, have not said a word about such very likely corrupt behavior, which has shocked those made aware of it on social media.
Superrich
The two aren't rich enough to afford to pay for such items that only the superrich can collect. I know Stella's husband Miro when he was Pag-IBIG head during Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's presidency. I vibered him several times last week asking if he could explain his wife's (as well as his, as he also posted a photo on his FB sporting a P250,000 Rolex) P50-million bag and jewelry collection. No reply at all.
Now, here's why I find Quimbo and Abante's unexplained wealth so troubling as to lead to my gloomy view of the country.
Quimbo comes from a section of the lower-middle-class that one would expect to be so imbued with honesty, integrity and a serve-the-people culture. Her educational and academic career is impeccable: elementary and high school in St. Scholastica's Marikina (which, like its sister school in Manila, has been a bastion of the leftist ideology of the Jose Ma. Sison and "liberation theology" brand.) She got her bachelor's, master's and PhD degrees from UP. She was even chairman of the University of the Philippines School of Economics. By her education, this citizen would have known how much of our country is so ruled by the elite that it has to be overthrown, unfortunately not by violence.
Her mother was also an academic and was President Arroyo's secretary for science and technology. How could she have amassed so much wealth that she could buy a collection of designer bags and watches, luxury goods that only the superrich in this country can afford?
Malou Tiquia, noted political strategist and a colleague in this newspaper, says of Quimbo: "She used to be a decent individual, an economist teaching in UP. Today, she is the sum total of what a trapo is. Dolled and dressed up as a power player."
Man of God
Abante, on the other hand, had devoted much of his life (until he was elected representative of the 6th district of Manila in 2004 and then in 2019) as a "man of God," a preacher of Christianity, whose eighth commandment is "Thou shalt not steal."
Abante is not just your ordinary "pastor" emerging from nowhere after reading the Bible and having delusions of talking to God. He studied theology at the Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri, and founded the Bible Baptist Church Ministries. He was the president of the Metropolitan Lighthouse Theological School and Institute and administrator of the Metropolitan International Christian Academy in Manila in 1985.
He was conferred an honorary degree in theology at Citadel Baptist College in 1985 and an honorary doctor of theology at Indianapolis Baptist College in 1987. He even has a master's degree in government from the Pamantasan ng Lungsod of Manila.
How could he throw into the waste basket everything he learned in these educational institutions by flaunting his questionable wealth?
Bible
In 1986, he founded the Bible Believers League for Morality and Democracy and heads the Abante International Ministries (AIM), the Grace and Truth Community International Foundation Inc., and the Ben O. Abante Baptist Bible College.
In short, Abante is, by passion and intellect, an intense believer in Christianity. But unless those positions provide salaries equivalent to those of CEOS in top companies, or if he is extremely wealthy on his own, how can he afford the P12 million bullet-proof Mercedes-Benz, a "four-wheeled motorcycle" that is a toy for the big boys? For a pastor whose religion's sixth commandment is "Thou shalt not kill," he collects guns and proudly poses on social media with his Slovak-made Stribog AP9, a deadly P200,000 assault rifle rare in the Philippines.
Our institutions have become so rotten to the core. The President openly violates the law by accepting a P60 million gift in the form of professional fees for the 1980s Duran Duran Band that played during his birthday, and politicians are just mum about it. The present House of Representatives is the most corrupt and mercenary legislative body in our history.
"Forty percent commission is now their standard, up from 30 percent for decades," a contractor claimed. Baguio City Mayor Benjie Magalong, after doing much research, revealed recently that 70 percent of the cost of the "rock netting" projects to prevent landslides in highways along mountains go to politicians' pockets. The justice system is so flawed that three senators and several congressmen, after several years of trial, were acquitted despite overwhelming evidence regarding their involvement in the pork barrel scam, disclosed in detail in 2012. Their assistants were instead convicted.
Ombudsman
We have an Ombudsman, the anti-graft body, that refuses to release to the public a document that the Constitution itself intended as a powerful anti-corruption weapon, the government officials' Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN). If Sens. Risa Hontiveros and Jinggoy Estrada portray themselves as God's gift to our Congress, why don't they release their SALNs for the past 10 years? Most legislators of the post-EDSA era have become inexplicably rich even beyond their wildest dreams. Intended to represent the "marginalized" sectors, the party-lists have become the cheaper way for elites to be represented in Congress and for communist fronts to be in that body that is a base for democracy.
Another indication of the Philippine mainstream media's atrocious betrayal of its role in a Republic, it has totally ignored this Quimbo-Abante earth-shaking revelations that reveal how deep the culture of corruption is in this country.
How do we change this rotten system in a country that is the 13th most populous nation on earth, which, therefore, if things don't change, would be among the nations with the most number of poor people?
It is people who create institutions. It is people, therefore, who can change it. I had thought the people who would do this would come first from the next generation, particularly those deeply imbued for years in the values of honesty and integrity in such universities as UP. A second source of possible institution-changers would be the Christian congregation, whose big advantage is that Filipinos are mostly under the spell of that religion.
Beneficiaries
But then Quimbo represents the first, and Abante the second. They definitely are not only not institution changers but appear to be beneficiaries of this corrupt system. Worse, they have encouraged their "constituencies" to do what they have done and not to worry about it.
Do you blame me for losing hope? Quimbo and Abante don't realize the damage they have done to the country and its future because of their fondness for designer bags and watches.
Facebook: Rigoberto Tiglao
X: @bobitiglao
Website: www.rigobertotiglao.com