[Pastilan] Let there be mild (however not an excessive amount of within the Senate)

It’s being made to appear to be a brand new period of transparency. Senators started releasing their Statements of Belongings, Liabilities, and Internet Price (SALNs) with a solemnity that gave the act a semblance of ethical revival in public service.

Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla’s determination to carry a Duterte-era memorandum round that restricted entry to those paperwork was hailed as reform. But the sooner directive by then-ombudsman Samuel Martires by no means really stopped any official from publishing their SALN. It solely made it more durable for residents to acquire them by means of formal channels. What it protected was not privateness however discomfort.

Now, with that restriction gone, senators have discovered new confidence in disclosure — or so it appears. The filings, polished and partly redacted, appeared virtually without delay, as if choreographed. It felt much less like a burst of honesty than a managed efficiency. The message was management: reveal what you need, while you need, and name it transparency.

In Philippine politics, even openness has a script.

And so, senators paraded their wealth like penitents carrying relics however blacked out the names of their corporations as if secrecy had been a type of devotion. It’s a political striptease the place one sees a lot ethical posturing, however little or no publicity. And on this charade of righteousness, few carry out with extra polish than Senator Joel Villanueva.

There are few sights extra self-righteous, or extra disquieting, than the son of a televangelist preaching about integrity. In a single Jesus is Lord (JIL) video posted on YouTube, Villanueva, inheritor to the household pulpit and now the face of a rising political dynasty, sermonized about “Joseph the Dreamer.” The selection of character feels virtually prophetic. Who higher than the Outdated Testomony Joseph, the dream interpreter turned bureaucrat, to encourage a person whose visions all the time appear to finish in useful resource allocations?

We’re informed that Joseph was betrayed by jealous brothers and solid right into a pit, solely to rise, by means of divine favor, to energy in Egypt. Villanueva’s “pit” was his dismissal from authorities for misuse of pork barrel funds; his “divine lifting” got here when that call was mysteriously reversed, a personal resurrection identified solely to then-ombudsman Martires and the anointed few.

And thus we have now a contemporary miracle: accountability undone by prayer and paperwork.

Villanueva as Joseph, the righteous man slandered by lesser mortals? That may make his accusers Potiphar’s spouse lusting after and clutching at his cloak of innocence, the whistleblowers serpents within the wheat, and the watchdogs and critics a plague of locusts.

He insists, in fact, that he has no flood management initiatives in any respect, a denial so pure it borders on metaphysical. The initiatives are ghostly, formless, like acts of religion: infrastructure unseen however believed. They’re invisible as a result of they’re in all probability religious.

Villanueva additionally asserts that Senate data will present he raised hell in regards to the flood management initiatives. Nicely, he might nicely have thundered towards ghostly infrastructure in committee hearings, his voice trembling with the fury of the clear. However noise will not be proof of advantage; it’s merely proof of a microphone. 

Fairly frankly, to listen to Villanueva preach is like watching theology debase itself and collapse into arithmetic. Such a religion has turn out to be a merger of pulpit showmanship and political calculation, like a prosperity gospel in a tough hat, with God promoted to the publish of contractor within the skies.

Similar to in any Villanueva-like church, scandals are solid as assessments of religion, each investigation a conspiracy — or persecution — towards the chosen. “The Lord blesses the trustworthy,” followers are informed, although one notices that windfall has an uncanny behavior of favoring a couple of. Within the Villanueva church, the blessings, it appears, are strictly dynastic.

Villanueva’s genius, if one might name it that, lies in his potential to sanctify survival. When cornered by scandal, he doesn’t apologize or retreat. Fairly, the ordeal is recast as a divine trial. And so, his dismissal from authorities grew to become just like the trial of Job; his reinstatement, a resurrection.

Each accident, from setback to success, is retold as proof of heavenly favor, as if the Almighty had nothing higher to do than handle the profession prospects of this senator.

Villanueva would have us imagine he’s the dreamer, persecuted however pure. However he’s hardly alone on this pageant of selective advantage. Round him, the Senate gleams with halos: billionaires and millionaires posing as reformers, dynasts as servants, populists as martyrs of “public belief.” Transparency, of their palms, is definitely efficiency artwork.

The Impartial Fee for Infrastructure has since beneficial prices towards a number of of those figures, Villanueva amongst them, for allegedly pocketing commissions from flood management initiatives. Cuts of 20% to 30%, in keeping with witnesses. But on this Republic of Divine Favor, each exposé is a crucifixion, and each subpoena is a check of religion.

The accused protest with rehearsed indignation. “I welcome each alternative to clear my title,” they declare, as if due course of had been a sacrament.

And so the charade continues. Our flesh pressers have perfected the artwork of showing virtuous with out the burden of advantage.

It’s stated that daylight is one of the best disinfectant. However right here, the sunshine merely flatters. What we see will not be publicity however the gleam of energy, wealth varnished with piety, and, sure, alleged corruption dressed as religion. Their monetary confessions are usually not revelations however rehearsals, every one an ethical pageant the place each halo is self-issued and each scandal forgiven prematurely.

In the future, maybe, Senator Villanueva will dream once more, this time of an Egypt the place the slaves have grown weary of pyramids constructed on prayers and pork. Till then, he’ll doubtless go on preaching, halo barely askew, voice trembling with borrowed conviction, whereas the trustworthy, educated to mistake energy for grace, roar their common benediction: “Amen, reward the Lord!”

Isn’t that the genius of all of it — individuals clapping and praying whereas the sport goes on precisely the identical backstage? Pastilan. – Rappler.com