For all the hullaballoo surrounding the much disdained pork barrel scam, the public has breathed a sigh of relief that the country’s most popular fugitive, Janet Lim-Napoles (yes, a woman), has surrendered, and now in good hands with police authorities. Is she our enemy? We’ll know it later.

Subtly, we Filipinos are suffering from political myopia – we have failed to grasp the soul of the scandal – that hunting and putting Napoles behind bars does not and will not erase corruption done before our ashen eyes. Who is Napoles? Yes, we call her the mastermind of the P10-billion pork barrel scam, who hobnobs with the likes of Juan Ponce Enrile, Bong Revilla, Bongbong Marcos, Gringo Honasan, Jinggoy Estrada, etc in what we thought to be an ordinary party (with extraordinary behind-the-scene transactions). Following the surrender of Napoles and her subsequent incarceration at Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, where the disgraced former President Erap Estrada was once detained, we became leery of Pres. Noynoy Aquino and DILG Secretary Mar Roxas, including of any person who stumbles into the shadow of Napoles, believing they are part of the grand scheme of conspiracy.

It is understandable that the public likes to nurture this nagging suspicion, of this unshakeable feeling of distrust and faithlessness, since we’ve been told with so many lies by those who are in almost unbridled discretion how Filipino taxpayers’ money is being spent. Out of our overlapping disgust and anger, we’ve made Napoles as the apple of our collective hatred. To satisfy Filipinos’ new-found appetite to obliterate those who steal our hard-earned money, we may consent to the idea of restoring death penalty, this time by firing squad, with Napoles as our first prop for target-practice. But the billion-peso question is: will the pulverization of Napoles’ bones and flesh solve corruption in our country?

No, it won’t.

Unless we change the system how public funds is allocated and disbursed to its rightful beneficiaries, the surrender and imprisonment of Janet Lim Napoles would not produce any pound of honesty, transparency, and accountability in governance. Her suffering in jail may temporarily put out the burning flames of public anger, but Napoles would just remain a sacrificial goat, devoid of any social impact, in the altar of senators and congressmen, who had used her as their priestess of greed. We cannot continue to pour out all our fury on the existence of Napoles without forgetting the fact that she is just a tool, and if she is just a tool, we should therefore redirect our energy and passion upon those who have been using the tool for their personal benefit.

Ten years from now, or two decades from now, and we will all forget the face of Napoles and all her dark affairs in Congress and in the Senate, but if this nauseating corruption in our midst would remain a fixture in Philippine society, with still no politicians being put in jail for the crime of robbery, what good will the surrender of Napoles do to us?

Some may argue that Napoles holds the key that could illuminate the dark secrets of corruption in Philippine Government and she could stand as a state witness in a looming trial, but we have witnessed how excruciating, tedious, annoying, torturous to watch the process of prosecuting a public official. Ex-CJ Renato Corona comes to mind. If we feel that we’ve been betrayed and robbed by our leaders, our act of sweet revenge has to be redefined. Napoles is not our enemy. The enemy is within us. The enemy is our own reckless decision to sell votes during elections.