A liar just as untrustworthy as a thief

Vice President Jejomar Binay. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima should check out the buzz from insiders at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) that P14 million changes hands every month from convicted drug lords to some officials in exchange for their VIP treatment of the inmates.

Five million pesos, the rumor goes, went to a high official at the Bureau of Corrections.

Another five million pesos ended in the hands of a high Department of Justice (DOJ) official who allegedly shared the bribe with a former spouse of another colleague at the DOJ.

The remaining four million pesos was shared by officials and guards at the NBP.

De Lima won’t lose anything if she checks out the rumor. When there’s smoke, there’s fire.

The rumor is so persistent there could be a semblance of truth to it.

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The popular commentary program, Karambola, on dwIZ (882 kHz on the AM band) will be back on Jan. 5, 2015.

Contrary to what Vice President Jojo Binay’s claim that he is one of its new hosts, Karambola will no longer have any incumbent or former elected or appointed official for its hosts.

Instead, Karambola will have the country’s topnotch columnists whose names I am not yet at liberty to mention in this space.

If you were entertained and informed by former Karambola hosts, you will be more so with dyed-in-the-wool and respected journalists on board starting

Jan. 5.

Karambola tackles political and economic issues of the day and, of course, controversial topics like the corruption allegations against Binay.

The program temporarily went off the air on Dec. 15, Monday, after Binay, who came uninvited on Dec. 12, Friday, “thanked” the station’s management for inviting him to be one of its regular hosts.

The program hosts at the time—Cely Buena, Joel Paredes and Party List Rep. Jonathan dela Cruz—were dumbfounded by the Vice President’s announcement.

The program invited Binay on Dec. 10, Wednesday, as guest to explain his side on allegations of unexplained wealth and corruption against him.

Binay with his son, Makati Mayor Junjun, came back two days later uninvited; that was when Binay announced he was joining the program as one of its hosts, to the surprise of the regular hosts.

Mayor Junjun said he also wanted to become another regular host of the show, but his father cut him short saying they might be accused of also having a “dynasty” on radio.

That was on a Friday. Starting Monday, Dec. 15, when the show resumed after the weekend, the Karambola hosts decided to go on leave.

They didn’t want to offend the No. 2 highest official of the land.

And who in his right mind would want to cross swords with the Vice President?

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Asked by reporters about the allegation in this space about the reason for Karambola’s going off the air, Binay said that the hosts went on vacation because of the Christmas season.

Binay said that when Karambola goes on the air again on Jan. 5, 2015, he will be one of mainstays of the show, along with the hosts who “went on vacation because of the Christmas season.”

Anybody who knows the work ethic in media will tell you that editors, columnists, reporters and commentators—like the hosts of Karambola—don’t go on a vacation even during the holidays.

If Binay can lie on a small matter like the Karambola issue, he can lie about anything else.

There’s a Filipino saying, “Ang sinungaling ay kapatid ng magnanakaw (The liar is brother to a thief, or, a liar is just as untrustworthy as a thief).”