FISHY
Datu Mansiksikan
Isagani Sarmiento
Supreme Council of Datus Alimaong, Cagayan de Oro City
Officials from the towns of Villanueva and Tagoloan in Misamis Oriental are the subjects of an investigation in connection with the alleged withdrawal of the US$ 2 billion shipyard project of Korea’s Hanjin Hevy Industries and Construction Corp. (Hanjin)
Purportedly according to the The Gold Star Daily, the biggest newspaper in Mindanao (May 5, 2008), these officials “wanted a contract to supply aggregates to hanjin” while “another wanted to corner a multi million peso steel deal.”
While corruption is corruption no matter what its color or size is, one cannot help but remark: Is that it? That’s all that these officials wanted from Hanjin? How puny are these demands compared to the size of the project! Out of curiosity, comparing this Korean shipyard deal with the aborted $200 + million Chinese NBN-ZTE broadband project, Hanjin’s is a far distant 10 times greater. That being said, would it be reasonable to assume by anyone who is in his right mind that the size and prosopects for base-gain from the Hanjin project did not register in the radar scope of high level officials from Malacañang? That’s impossible!
A huge project such as Hanjin’s would take off the ground only with government knowledge. Who else, aside from these local officials, are in the take? Justice and righteousness must be upheld. The reaction of hanjin’s total withdrawal from Misamis Oriental is entirely disproportionate to the tiny bits of local fingerlings from Villanueva and Tagoloan who are being investigated for abuse of power and corruption. Justice Department watchers must trace these nibblings to where the large sharks waiting to feed in frenzy.
