Of Plagiarism, Galil Firearms, Public Service and the RH Bill

To actually hang Sen. Tito Sotto for the plagiarism charges that recently plagued his clueless RH Bill (this blogger feature beats me - where the fuck is that "tab" button whereas I never used tab in the above line!!!) speeches is missing the point by the details. First of all, he probably employs tens of staff excluding the brazen chief lawyer Hector Villacorta that do research, his speeches, refining, and re-writing including editing of all forms of communication in their offices. 

So, the contentious bill aside, it should be those staff members, but most importantly, the lawyer Villacorta that should have been sacked ages ago... if the Senator had used half of his wits. I mean, why not employ any one of the thousand eloquent bloggers of the land (like me???) for instance? Sotto, and Villacorta, after all are public servants that must uphold their sworn oaths (below).

By virtue of the above sworn statement, a public document, and Republic Act 6713, all government officials are answerable to all citizens (Payless and Lucky Me instant noodle taxpayers included) of this Republic.
They are mandated to always uphold the public interest over and above personal interest, and they are to use all government resources and powers of their offices:

• efficiently,
• effectively,
• honestly
• economically while avoiding wastage in public funds and revenue. 

Plagiarism. This is one tacky subject that I don't enjoy much discussing. While I will probably raise hell when my "own words" were used by a highly-paid government office like the senate without acknowledgement (I'd prefer the royalty or payment- why not buy a speech! It's cheap at Recto! Or even at this blog!), I really don't have much for "western" laws. Is it my Asian lineage? Was I a pirate in my previous life? Whatever.
But plagiarism, my friends, is a legal entity which is considered a crime, Villacorta's stupidity aside. We have to give in to prevailing Western capitalist international laws because - we have embraced them (Western pop culture) hook, bait, and sinker! We have to live by them!

Bidding and Galil Firearms
(Drooling! the guns!)  The public bidding process is the most enjoyable topic of all time for majority of government officials especially those who actually sign government vouchers. Why, this is the main reason they assume the roles of clowns during campaign period and gods during election times! And when you actually believe that what Pres. Noynoy discovered about overpricing and the bid process mysteries were of any relevance, you have not heard one fourth of Philippine history, yet! Below is the characteristic of the Bidding process:

• Bidding procedures are supposedly done under the scrutiny of the public. This is why you get to see Invitation to Bid ads in major dailies, daily.
• If qualified bidders and honest businesses will participate in government/public bidding, they usually bring with them a lot of goodluck wishes. If they threaten the corporations of the elected (the oligarchs of this land- the ones you keep voting or choose to vote on), they are either threatened back, or given a fair share of the pie (grease money to back out, and shut up).
• During the bidding process, the magicians of the bureaucracy are scrambling like their lives depended on it (actually, it does). You should see one to believe me.
• During this process, accountants usually lord it over their CEOs (gotta believe me again). They dictate which is legal and which is not. But of course, they can produce the legal documents. Recto does not monopolize this business. For non-Pinoy readers, Recto is the capital of the Philippines for forgery, counterfeit, and other illegal papers made legal. Of course, aside from the Comelec and COA.
• During the bidding process, the suppliers (bidders) with the least "offer" for the voucher signatories are weeded out for half of or for all the right and wrong reasons. 
• Computation for actual funds paid from our Payless and Lucky Me taxes is  = 30% actual cost (prevailing market prices), 20% income for winning bidder, and 50% grease, or kickback. Sometimes, the voucher signatories are generous to their suppliers, they actually give additional 10%, if they do not own the bidder.

And so, my dear friends, I just also summed up why your RH Bill is another smoke screen to fool the voters that their elected senators and congressmen actually have contributions to the land aside from bleeding our coffers/tax moneys to dry. We already have millions of existing laws, most important of which are already embodied by the Constitution.  But I doubt your local police chief is even aware of it - I mean the Constitution, not yet its contents. They cannot even apply the law against murder if you could check their records properly. But then again my dear friends, you have got to have visited your local precinct to actually understand what I am trying to say.

Not that I am saying RH Bill advocates are clueless middle-class elitists (just between us, they are not elitists as the oligarchy wants to monopolize elitism, as if certain discriminating belief of individuals about themselves is actually not the phoniest exercise of all). They simply are not grounded on reality. How can an additional law be implemented in a land where laws are for academe and supreme court archives only?