FROM THE BARREL OF MY PEN
By Gonzalo “Jun” Policarpio

NO ENTRY FOR KLEPTOCRATS

In a post-Arroyo regime, the sneering pro-Arroyo congressmen numbering 56 who killed the second impeachment complaint against the fake president should all be prosecuted for the crime of OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE. I heard from somebody who watched the proceedings on television that the way those cheap “lawbreakers” stood up when they voted down the complaint was a good sign of how they would be lined up to stand before a firing squad. Well, that’s too cool for them. They just have to be properly prosecuted and punished in accordance with the Constitution.



President Bush’s August 10th statement on high-level foreign corruption by senior government officials titled National Strategy to Internationalize Efforts Against Kleptocracy targets those corrupt foreign leaders and their cronies who stole the people’s money and stashed them abroad. He is just saying plainly that such shady characters are not welcome in the United States. He asked his fellow leaders at the G-8 meeting in St. Petersburg to work together in denying the “kleptocrats access to our financial systems and safe heaven in our countries.”

If some journalists and political analysts in the Philippines still enjoy to speculate on why Joc Joc Bolante’s visa was revoked by the US Embassy in Manila and why he was arrested when he tried to enter the United States at the LA port of entry, then it is time to make this announcement: Sometime in January, 2004, President Bush issued an Executive Order mandating U.S. embassies and consulates to deny visas to public officials involved in corruption. Subsequently sometime in August, 2004, the Department of Homeland Security charged its law enforcement branch, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with the responsibility of establishing the first Foreign Corruption Task Force in Miami, Florida to hit the “proceeds of public corruption emanating from foreign nations that are being laundered in the United States.”

The Foreign Corruption Task Force has already conducted 12 foreign corruption financial investigations involving eight countries. The Task Force’s first major case was the U.S. government’s seizure of a corrupt Nicaraguan official’s $3.5 million Key Biscayne condo and more than $ 150, 000 by a federal court order in December of 2004.
ICE Agents have already identified individuals illegally residing in the United States under false names who were responsible for the embezzlement of millions and millions of dollars of public funds from foreign countries. These foreign criminals will undergo thorough investigation, prosecution, and appropriate punishment. Any assets seized or forfeited will be returned to the host government.

I hope this will serve as a cue to anybody in the Philippines to forward any evidence to the US Embassy that will link top government officials to massive embezzlement of public funds so that their US visas will be revoked. Informants will be granted “S” visa , special immigrant visa, to enable them to testify in case such corrupt officials will be prosecuted in the United States.

For all those “Joc Joc” Bolante watchers anywhere in the world, I can say that this fugitive embezzler of the Filipino people’s money is destined to jail, either in the United States or in the Philippines. When he goes down the “bottomless pit,” so goes all those linked to his criminal activities.


End

junpolicarpio@yahoo.com
junpolicarpio@gmail.com