Let’s End 56.5 Years of Kleptocracy!

 Tarzan’s Post - 1-111021

Let’s End 56.5 Years of Kleptocracy!

“Kleptocracy is a government whose corrupt leaders use political power to appropriate the wealth of their nation, typically by embezzling or appropriating government funds at the expense of the wider population.” (Wikipedia)

From December 30, 1965, when Ferdinand Marcos became our president, to June 30, 2022, when a new president will have been elected, it will be exactly 56.5 years. This is a dark period of kleptocracy in our history from dictator Marcos to our worst president, Rodrigo Roa Duterte. 

 

In between Marcos and Duterte, we had Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and Benigno Aquino III, all weak leaders with varying degrees of mediocrity. They all failed to stop thievery in the government. In Estrada’s case, he was kicked out from Malacañang by EDSA 2 People Power because of brazen plunder involving $78 million to $80 million.

If we are suffering now, it is mainly because of the unabated corruption in our government triggered by the insatiable greed of our government officials. Today, even the money for the Covid-19 pandemic was channeled to Pharmally whose owners are more loved by President Duterte than the 110 million suffering Filipinos. 

We can end the 56.5 years of kleptocracy by electing one of the two most qualified presidential candidates, Senator Ping Lacson or Vice President Leni Robredo. Either one of them can minimize, if not totally eradicate, corruption in the government. I am, therefore, calling on all Filipinos to end the 56.5 years of kleptocracy by voting Senator Ping or VP Leni for president in May 2022.

With all due respect to the rest of the 97 presidential candidates, I would like to humbly advise them to withdraw from the presidential race and help campaign for Senator Ping and VP Leni. It is a great sacrifice on their part, but it would be for the good of our country and all of us, especially the future generations.

Instead of running for president, my unsolicited pieces of advice to former Senator Bongbong Marcos are: 

1. To apologize to the Filipino people, in behalf of his father who “purportedly embezzled $5 billion to $10 billion” from 1972 to 1986 based on Transparency  International, Global Corruption Report 2004; and, 

2. To return the money and other property that belong to the government.

These two actions would somehow assuage the pent-up emotions of the Filipino people especially the victims of Martial law. They would also lessen the guilty feelings of the Marcoses, even if they are on denial until now.

Should Bongbong Marcos refuse to withdraw his candidacy for president, let’s give him a zero vote in our respective precincts. Son of a dictator and direct heir and beneficiary of the Marcos loot, Bongbong Marcos does not deserve to be our president. If the Marcoses were in another country, some members of the family would have been languishing in jail, or all of them could have been killed by an angry mob during the 1986 revolution. But we are in the Philippines where most of our elected leaders and decision makers are suckers for tyrants. In addition, our misplaced kindness is also the injustice that oppresses us.

Again I say, let us stop kleptocracy by voting Senator Ping Lacson or VP Leni Robredo for president in May 2022. And let us all pray to our God in heaven for this to become a reality so that we could end our miseries and sufferings as a people.

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