‘Let’s do this, Sen. Joel: take the lead in getting to the bottom of the rot in Bulacan and tell the Filipino people all about it. Tell the people, not just your province mates, because it’s the people’s money that’s being wasted/pocketed there.’
Dear Senator Joel:
LIKE most Filipinos, I have followed, transfixed, how this whole flood water project corruption scandal has unfolded. I am not aware if the President has fully grasped the implications of what he has done, but he has pushed our political order closer to a revolutionary moment, the way no other sitting president has done in many years. And because the issue is tied to floodwaters, and because floodwaters will come again to inundate the living and the dead this year and next and next, I am sure that this issue will not die, not in the near future, indeed, maybe not until Christ’s second coming.
I thought of writing to you because I know that you are aware that people perceive you as being in the thick of it all: as you, in fact, have pointed out, you feel unjustly singled out by the media and vloggers who are spreading “fake news.” While I cannot say that I know you personally, I only know of you through your fellow UST alumni whom I have worked with during my years in the PBA. What I’ve heard from them is good things about you.
The “Kuya Joel” they’ve painted for me is not the Sen. Joel that seems to emerge from all these reports and allegations and, okay, “fake news.”
In reaction to everything that I have read and heard linking you to this controversy, I have asked myself: “For sure, someone who has placed God in the center of his life will not dare risk God’s wrath, yes?”
Then again, as you know far better than I (being the good Christian that you are), all of us make mistakes. All of us stray. All of us forget. That’s because we are human. But being human and straying from the path is not the end of things, because the God you strongly believe in is forgiving!
All we need to do is accept our frailties and vow to never go astray again!
Before you take offense, note that I am not prejudging you. I’m just saying that if there is a very, very slight chance that in all of these you slipped, then get up. Admit the mistake and move onward, proudly. The mark of leadership is not in not making mistakes but in taking responsibility for them, learning from them, and forging on.
Because here’s the thing. You, more than anyone else – as the nation’s highest ranking public official from your province – should be livid (yes, livid!) that in the list of provincial recipients of these questionable public funds, your province of Bulacan ranks first. Why? Why Bulacan? Why was Bulacan chosen to be a principal recipient of billions of public funds earmarked apparently for misuse?
What does it say about Bulacan? About the DPWH leadership in Bulacan? About the capacity of Bulacan’s political leaders to sniff out corruption happening right under their very noses?
Who was behind all these that have put Bulacan in a bad light and put you under the spotlight?
Let’s do this, Sen. Joel: take the lead in getting to the bottom of the rot in Bulacan and tell the Filipino people all about it. Tell the people, not just your province mates, because it’s the people’s money that’s being wasted/pocketed there.
And if indeed even the slightest responsibility leads to you for whatever reason – a sin of omission rather than commission, for example – remember that the Filipino people are a forgiving lot. And as you know more than I do, so is your God a forgiving God.
It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to show everyone your true character as well as the strength of your faith.
Who cares if no one else finds the faith and courage to follow your lead?
