Scams, lies and the web

POWER CORRUPTS. Scandals erupt.

So trite a tenet it has long become a truism, finding reaffirmation in the current of events, socio-political and economic too, buffeting the nation.

So the Philippine Daily Inquirer made the first crack with its expose of one Janet Lim-Napoles via her self-acronymed JLN Corp. using at least 20 dummy non-government organizations (NGOs) as beneficiaries of the pork barrel of certain legislators reaching as much as P10 billion.

That – per the statement of the principal whistleblower -- “JLN offered to lawmakers as commissions equivalent to 40 to 60 percent of the amount of PDAF in exchange for the right to determine the implementing agency and fund beneficiary.”

Fair is fair, but of course, with the Inquirer, quoting Napoles as having declared that “the charges against her and her family were false, fabricated, and a mere product of lies perpetrated by business competitors conspiring with corrupt agents of the National Bureau of Investigation with the ulterior motive of besmirching our reputation.”

Five senators and 23 congressmen were cited in the expose, with Senators  Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada proving quicker to the draw than their movie personas in denying ever even knowing Napoles, much less having anything to do with her NGOs.

Thereby the dam broke, so to speak, and the scandals gushed forth.

Photographs of Napoles partying with Revilla and Estrada exploded in the web, picturing the lie to the honourable senators’ denials.

Not to be outdone by his fellow action stars, Sen. Lito Lapid belatedly came into the pork barrel picture show with P20 million of his pork siphoned to another character allegedly for anti-dengue inoculants in dengue-unaffected towns that turned out to be garbage deodorizer that have remaining unused in landfill sites.

Like his fellow kiss-kiss-bang-bang bidas, Lapid denied ever knowing anything about Innsbruck International Trading, the company that received his PDAF.

Only for the Inquirer to put the lie to Lapid’s denial too, with a bunch of pictures showing him with Innsbruck GM Ma.  Victoria Sevilla Tolentino, one right in front of the senator’s palatial home in Porac town.

Pictures speak a thousand truths. Videos tell even more. And the web chronicles it all.
The internet exploded a few days back with the power of a megaton bomb in photographs and videos of Napoles daughter Jeane at her most outrageously outlandish ostentation of the gilded lifestyle.  
Porsche Boxster for her birthday. Porsche Cayenne for her graduation.

Luxury watches – costing some P1 million each. Hello Vacheron Constantine. And  jewelry – Hi, Bulgari. Signature clothes and shoes – nine pairs costing P360,000 each. Take a bow, Manolo Blahnik.

The shelves of branded bag store emptied of its display in one spree. How about one clutch bag reportedly costing roughly P400,000? Hermes, is that you? Or is it Louis Vuitton?

The Imeldific nearly reduced to a bag lady here.

And then some more – a train of baggage at a Japan airport after yet another shopping safari. Eat your heart out, Michelle Duvalier.  

The crowning glory in this oh-so-glorious-display of self-indulgent luxuriation is  Jeane’s 21st birthday party at Beverly Hills – coming straight from the soirees of Marie Antoinette herself with all that affectation and ostentation, bloviated ego and shameless pride.  

That which has spawned what is called a firestorm in the web.

One netizen summed it all up: “So much money, so little class.”

I tend to add: So much luxury. So crass.

It could have come only from un-labored wealth.

Power corrupts. Scandals erupt. Decadence results.

No straight and narrow path, but the road to perdition we are treading here.