Public knowledge

SO, SINCE when did your tocayo Bong Pineda join government and plunder the public coffers?
It was Matuang Seto, an elder at a highland resettlement site in Floridablanca whom I paid a long overdue visit over the week-end, that shocked me with that query.
Bong Pineda, so far as I can remember, never worked in government. I told him. (Our conversation in Kapampangan is translated here in English for the benefit of our foreign readers.)
If he did not work in government, then Bong Pineda could not have robbed money from the government. So why did Governor Among file a plunder case against him?
Well, Gov Among was quoted in the papers as saying: “It is general and public knowledge that Bong Pineda figured prominently in the trial of former President Joseph Estrada for plunder as among those who conspired and helped the latter amass ill-gotten wealth which constituted plunder.”
Well, general and public knowledge do not in any way constitute evidence of an offense. It is general and public knowledge in town that a priest who is now famous had carnal knowledge with the wife of an airman here some years back, but that did not subject him to any Church sanction. Same difference there.
Again, the Gov said in his complaint that “based on the decision of the Sandiganbayan, the evidence in the possession of the honorable office and presented before the Sandiganbayan, which led to the conviction of former President Joseph Estrada, also support an indictment against Bong Pineda.”
So Erap was convicted. So it follows that Bong Pineda should be convicted too? Of what?
Plunder, according to Gov.
How? Granting that Bong Pineda did help Erap amass wealth. Where did that come from?
From jueteng daw, per Chavit Singson’s testimony.
Absuelto. No case there. Jueteng money is not government money. So what plunder is Gov Among talking about?
Frankly, I don’t know.
Gov Among has a cause to sue for plunder though. But not against Bong Pineda.
Against whom?
The Lapids, who else. With his accomplishment in increasing the quarry collection a thousand fold, over P200 million in one year alone, Gov Among has already proven that there was plunder committed in Pampanga during the terms of Lito and Mark Lapid. The difference between the quarry incomes of Gov Among and the Lapids is way above the P50 million set for plunder. So, there’s a clear crime there.
So why didn’t Gov sue the Lapids?
I don’t know. Maybe he is afraid, the Bida is still a senator.
So Gov is not afraid of Bong Pineda?
He is more afraid that is why he sued him.
Contradiction there. How is that?
Bong Pineda, more than the Lapids, has the capacity to make life miserable to Gov Among. Remember, there’s still the electoral protest of Nanay Baby. And talks of a recall against Gov Among are getting louder and wilder by the day. So, Gov Among has to keep Bong Pineda on the defensive to prevent him from going on an offensive.
Makes sense. And Gov Among is going about it right. With 69 bishops now backing him up in his plunder case, Bong Pineda would really be pinned in a defensive corner.
Not really. Remember your Sun Tzu: Leave some room for your enemy to disengage. Do not push him too far back against a wall when the only alternative left to him is to fight back.
What are you driving at?
Bong Pineda has always the capacity for a “shock and awe” attack that could drive those bishops reeling from its impact.
What do you mean?
It is general and public knowledge here that many churches were built through the benevolence of Bong Pineda. It is general and public knowledge too that many clergymen live not only by the Mass offerings and the second and third collections, but off the palms, err, by the graces from Bong Pineda.
Dumb and damned am I.