If Ninoy were the President today

Have you ever wondered if Ninoy Aquino were the President today how he would unravel the maze of corruption that has insidiously enveloped the very fabric of our country’s officialdom?

We will never know, of course, since Ninoy gave his life on 21 August 1983 because he believed in his heart that the Filipino is worth dying for. Nevertheless, I thought it would be interesting to compare what AI has to say with how the current administration is handling this massive crisis of widespread corruption that seems to be growing like a festering cancer every day as the Independent Commission for Infrastructure investigation is hitting its stride.

With AI as a repository of data about the life of Ninoy, I thought it a reasonable proposition to use AI interspersed with my own observations as a credible enough benchmark to visualize how Ninoy would be as President during these times.

Perhaps the most pressing issue for a President Ninoy would be how to convince the public that those responsible for the mess we are in, whether friend or foe or kin, will not go unpunished. How can this be accomplished?

I don’t think anybody can deny that Ninoy’s legacy is centered on his moral conviction. All throughout his political life he was always the firebrand who did not hesitate to speak out against the entrenched powers whenever he saw abuses, even at the risk of his personal safety.

His steadfast objection to martial law during his imprisonment vividly demonstrated his commitment to sacrifice for the adherence to democratic principles. And his willingness to die for the Filipino people in order to gain freedom from any form of abuse erased any doubt that as President he would surely act decisively to ferret out any wrongdoing in his administration.

To send a clear message to his fellow public servants that corruption would not be tolerated in any form and that those who err will be punished to the fullest extent of the law, he would likely be pushing for strengthening the Office of the Ombudsman and the Commission on Audit by enabling joint investigations and resolutions.

To promote transparency, he would enact laws that would provide adequate protection to whistleblowers through more comprehensive legislation such as the long pending Unified Whistleblower Protection Law that would enable effective enforcement against wrongdoers, provide legal support for whistleblowers, and punitive measures for retaliation against whistleblowers.

He would put teeth into the largely inutile Freedom of Information law by doing away with existing legal obstacles such as invoking executive privilege, delaying responses or arbitrary denials, and limiting the law’s applicability to only the executive branch. There is absolutely no reason why the FoI law should exclude the legislative and judiciary branches. The ongoing exposure of the corruption of some legislators is undeniably the strongest argument for covering everyone.

To the credit of President BBM — lest those vigorously demonstrating and asking for his resignation may conveniently disregard for reasons not quite out of patriotism but perhaps for the more sinister motivation of installing their favored president from the South — it was in fact BBM who loudly rang the alarm bells in justifiable indignation over the hideous blood-sucking corrupt practices prevalent in infrastructure projects that apparently preceded the current administration.

As to how far back, only the culprits of the past and the present know and hopefully this could be unearthed in the current independent investigation that was started by BBM.

Perhaps for the most important measure of all, an enlightened and progressive-minded President like Ninoy would favor a digitized mode of monitoring and oversight by a public-private sector team in the awarding, execution, and implementation of infrastructure projects through technological advancements such as the use of blockchain that enhances performance transparency and prevents manipulation of data.

But as a hats-off to BBM, the ongoing investigation of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure, despite some hiccups following the resignation of the respected Mayor Magalong as Advisor and brickbats thrown about the lack of transparency of the hearings, the selection of the highly respected private sector Commissioners deserves credit for the progress shown so far.

It remains to be seen, however, if after all is said and done the trillions lost to the culprits will be recovered and those nefarious characters will be put behind bars for what they had done.

Until next week… OBF!