Where the devils are

If hell is empty, then where the hell are the devils? The king’s son in The Tempest said all the devils are here. Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson knows the specific place where the devils have gathered

In William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” Ariel, ex-duke Prospero’s magical spirit, recounted how he blew a storm on the king’s fleet. Ariel torched one vessel and all except the crew jumped into the foaming brine.

Ariel said, “The king’s son, Ferdinand,/ With hair up-staring—then, like reeds, not hair—/ Was the first man that leaped, cried,/ “Hell is empty/ And all the devils are here.”

We don’t know if Shakespeare knew better than us. Who knows whether hell is really empty?

*** If hell is empty, then where the hell are the devils? The king’s son in The Tempest said all the devils are here. Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson knows the specific place where the devils have gathered.

Lacson said, “Hell is empty and all the devils are at the (Bureau of ) Customs.”

The BOC has long been compared to the Augean stables. This is the first time the BOC was identified as a place where all the devils gather.

***

Hell is always described as the place where the devils gather. If all the devils gather at the BOC, is the BOC hell? No. Lacson said the BOC is heaven.

“And for the devils, the BOC is heaven—a heaven that is a haven for crooks, criminals, malefactors and Faeldons… sorry, I meant felons,” he said, referring to former Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon.

Lacson earlier said Customs officials and employees, including Faeldon, collected up to P71,700 tara or bribe on each shipment smuggled through the BOC.

*** Lacson said the tara system showed the systemic corruption at the BOC which can “give the mafia a stiff competition.”

But Faeldon denied having received bribes and a P200 million “pasalubong” and turned the guns on Lacson, saying the senator’s son and namesake, was involved in cement smuggling.

Lacson denied Faeldon’s accusation. But all the devils are at the BOC.