Celebrity Senator Jail Cell vs Ninoy Aquino Jail Cell: An Open Letter to the President

Celebrity Senator Jail Cell vs Ninoy Aquino Jail Cell: An Open Letter to the President

The following is an open letter to President Aquino by John Silva:

Dear President Aquino,

This is your boss John talking.

You need to explain to me why you are giving these senators, charged with a 10 billion peso plunder charge, huge comfy jail cells. (second pic)

Your dad Ninoy was a senator too and when he was put in jail for eight years, got a cell about a tenth the size (first pic attached) of what you’re giving these senators.

In one cell, Ninoy had only a chamber pot, not a private bathroom. His bed was smaller with little to nothing inside that cell. There’s a repro of the cell in your family museum in Tarlac.

Your dad didn’t go to jail for stealing. He was into more heady stuff like a return to democracy, human rights and moral convictions. So why the hell are you treating these senators with kid gloves, these guys who can’t seem to recall, account, or sign off on billions of missing pesos?

Did your dad ever stoop so low as to sing a swan song in the Senate like Revilla? “My Way” perhaps like Frank Sinatra?

Did your dad ever whine that he was being singled out like Estrada?

And yet you treat these guys like naughty boys who get ten lashings with a wet noodle. After you break your ass all these months pushing Justice Secretary De Lima et al to make sure there’s finally arrests, despite all the roadblocks thrown their way.

Which makes me and many more taxpayers (your bosses) very alarmed. Napoles surrenders to you and we read later what a humongous crook she seems to really be. Why do you know vermins of this kind and why do they get to appear and soil Malacanang furniture after a massive manhunt surrendering only to you and Mar?

When your dad was jailed in very constricted quarters, he had a revelation. His ego disappeared and material things didn’t matter any longer. His morals and conscience though remained. Tight jails with the accompanying deprivation of freedom, the withdrawal of appurtenances for life’s enjoyment, made Ninoy think. He thought of the seconds, the minutes, the hours, the days and the long long years. He disposed the pettiness and the inutile, became contrite and realized his only reason for living was to regain democracy. There’s something to be said about the rehabilitative features of confinement in an ordinary jail.

These people now charged with plundering our hard earned money are going to get hotel size rooms with their own toilets and probably even hot water. Pray tell how are they going to repent if they have a toilet bowl with a toilet seat instead of a chamber pot? How are they going to get a catharsis if they wake up all bright and fresh and not bothered by other snoring cellmates?

And if the prosecution of these plunderers will be as slow as the Ampatuan massacre case (4 years and counting) why be contrite? They’ll bide their time, take up knitting, read the bible, tweezer their nose hairs, botox their faces, walk a little longer on the treadmill because in less than two years, they’re praying their friends return to power and the jail doors open big and wide and bienvenida parties will be in full swing.

You’ve done good this far getting them charged with plunder. But you better go the whole nine yards.

Like your dad’s, give them cells that make them sweat and agonize and realize their thieving days were a blight on our people. The plunder law, non-bailable and at one point earned the death penalty, is NOT in the category of white-collar crimes. It’s equal to that of first-degree murder. Because when a country and its people are deprived of their hard earned taxes meant for its welfare, and we don’t progress and people are jobless, sick and die, plunder is just like murder in my book. Prosecute them judiciously AND swiftly.

You’d better do some serious and immediate changes to this cushy jail arrangements or else your “ tuwid na daan” slogan (righteous path) will be tarnished. It will be instead just another zig-zag, counterflow, carabao-turd road for us, your employers.

Go check out your father’s jail cell this weekend. Bring a tape measure. Stop indulging the accused we are now thoroughly repulsed with or else you diminish what your father, Senator Ninoy Aquino, stood and was killed for.