There is a saying that “a fish is caught by its mouth,” means that people who commit wrongdoing often get caught because they got careless and opened their mouths, ironically providing the evidence needed to complete the case against them.
These days, people hardly go fishing anymore, which makes the saying a bit dated and old school, so it may be due for a refresh. In this era where the rod and the reel are no longer a common sight or a popular hobby, what gets corrupt wrongdoers caught are their nepo babies flaunting too much of their obnoxiously ostentatious lifestyles and ill-gotten wealth on social media.
So it would seem that nowadays, a fish is caught by the reels of its spawn.
If you come to think of it, any anti-corruption effort by either the Ombudsman, Commission on Audit, Presidential Commission on Good Governance (if that still exists) just needs a decent social media stalker to come up with a list of potential targets for investigations.
The ones with lots of followers and subscribers, for simply flaunting their lifestyle, would be the obvious targets. Especially if it is established that their parents are politicians and/or contractors, and that their declared source of income obviously doesn’t match their spending habits. While it is difficult to understand how these people become massively popular on social media, maybe they give poor Filipinos something to aspire to, since they look rich and fabulous, the benefit is that this popular sideline for nepo babies has made it much easier to track them down. Instead of hiding, these people who seem to be blissfully unaware of the ill-gotteness of their wealth, are actually showing off as much as possible. The only problem is that our government seemed to have lost interest in going after corruption for a while.
Aside from the super obvious because they are obviously super rich, other surprisingly rich targets can also be investigated through their social media posts/reels. Many local officials and their family members who claim they don’t have any other income aside from public service, must surely be giving away probable causes for lifestyle checks on their social media feed as they flex their luxuries and being #blessed. There is so much probable cause out there in reels and posts. All we need is a government entity that is ready and willing to actually investigate and prosecute corruption at all levels.
There was a time when the corrupt would prefer to go underground, and took care not to flaunt their ill-gotten wealth. That was when even such people had delicadeza.
However, times have changed and as soon as everyone got used to an administration where corruption wasn’t a priority, and seeing that there was a viable sideline in social media for their kids who like to be flashy, the boastful ones simply couldn’t help it and started showing off their haul. Those of us who have given up on our government ever cracking down on corruption simply accepted the fact that flaunting is now acceptable, and many more even became followers and subscribed to their feeds, probably looking for inspiration to also be rich through corruption someday.
We have to admit that the corrupt have been emboldened by a government that has been looking the other way for years. It’s not just flood control projects. There’s also the Pharmally scandal, POGO, ghost employees, intelligence funds. Even the Ombudsman would not allow SALNs to be made available to the public. We have simply given up because government is inutile, and have even consoled ourselves by watching the reels of nepo babies who are enjoying the fruits of corruption by flaunting their unimaginable ill-gotten wealth.
Now that corruption is a hot topic once more, which is something I honestly never expected to see under the administration of a President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Filipinos can only hope that it is not just a trend to distract from low ratings, but a sustained and institutionalized effort on the part of the government.
In a world where SALNs have become useless because the Ombudsman would rather coddle the corrupt, social media reels and posts have done the self-inflicted exposing. The corrupt have felt so untouchable that they are no longer hiding in the dark, so they now flex and brag as much as they want. It’s not just on social media, but some of them even tried to do it on traditional media. That’s how normalized corruption has become and how unafraid they are of the consequences.
Imagine what could happen if our government suddenly decided and became determined to seriously use all the tools at its disposal, from SALNS to lifestyle checks, audits and AMLA investigations, to go after these people who are plundering the nation’s coffers. And if they are found guilty, they go to jail, without any chance of pardon. That should be how the corrupt should feel, instead of having the gall to flaunt their ostentatious wealth in social media.*
