There is something about Filipino public servants and Philippine
society in general that could make one lose faith in humanity. It could
be the fact that a lot of public servants do not have any qualms about
lying to and stealing from the Filipino public. Or it could be the fact
that the majority of Filipino voters keep voting the same people into
public office despite their mediocre performance and track record of
abuse of power. Or it could also be because the majority of Filipinos
lack interest or show apathy towards the problems that plague the
nation. The Filipino people’s attitude in general make the idea of
aiming for real change in the Philippines seem so hopeless.
Tama na, sobra na, palitan na!
Philippine
President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino is an example of someone who
obviously doesn’t have any qualms about fooling the public into
believing he is for the greater good of the nation in the face of strong
evidence that he is just doing things for his own personal gain and his
political party’s advantage. The President has been accused by his
critics of being a dictator for allegedly bribing the members of
Congress into doing what he wants. But when you think about it, BS
Aquino doesn’t have to be a dictator when he is dealing with willing
participants.
The members of Congress who accepted BS Aquino’s “reward” money for
convicting former Chief Justice Renato Corona for instance were more
than willing to participate in the sham. Senator Jinggoy Estrada’s
speech exposing the Chief Executive’s use of public funds to bribe the
Senate may have helped uncover the truth about the length with which BS
Aquino went to to persecute his enemies, but it doesn’t change the fact
that senators like Estrada were more than happy to accept the money in
exchange for his “guilty” vote.
Likewise, the general public who were gullible enough to believe the
black propaganda against Corona pitched to them by the prosecution team
with the help of some members of mainstream media prior to and during
his impeachment trial, still think that rewarding the Senators was
justified. In other words, BS Aquino doesn’t have to do much to
“convince” the Filipino people to support his dirty deeds.
Why can’t ex presidents and incumbents all just get along?
Lately
though, because of his own doing, there are more and more Filipinos who
are starting to realize that BS Aquino would consistently blame former
President Gloria Arroyo every time his own administration gets stuck
between a rock and a hard place. He has even become a laughingstock in
quite a number of online forums because of the lameness of his excuses.
Some even say that he doesn’t act like a real man because he is not
capable of being accountable for his own actions or inaction.
Even during his first year in office, some of his critics have
already noted that it seems like he would keep blaming GMA until he
steps down from office. Nevertheless, it is still quite outrageous to
see that the prediction is coming true. It’s like BS Aquino’s
predictability never ceases to amaze his critics. His use of the
blame-game is simply a tactic to deflect blame away from himself. His
loyal supporters – those who are still beholden to the Aquino name,
unfortunately swallow every thing he says hook, line and sinker.
An instance wherein BS Aquino and his minions tried to fool the
public was when they contradicted themselves in their response to the claim that the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) is illegal:
On Tuesday, Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte cited the Constitution’s Article VI, Section 25 (5) and the Administrative Code’s Chapter 5, Book VI, Sections 39 and 49 as legal bases of the DAP.
Malacañang has also said the DAP was abolished around the same time when Aquino scrapped the pork barrel of lawmakers.
“Tinanggalan ko yung kakayahan kong mamudmod [ng pera],” Aquino said on Wednesday.
In his statement, BS Aquino does come across like someone whose hands
got caught in the cookie jar, who then immediately becomes defensive by
saying “Okay, I’ve already put the cookie back!”.
A typical road in the Philippines presumably funded by pork (net of ‘commissions’)
First,
Malacanang insists that DAP is legal even when the law they cited is
very vague on the issue and is not specific about using it to “reward”
lawmakers for convicting Supreme Court Justices. Even if one assumes
the lawmakers used the funds appropriately, it still does not justify
using the funds for projects that are merely “after thoughts”. They are
after thoughts because the senators did not ask for the additional
funds originally, they were asked to request for it. This is a claim supported by Senator Peter Cayetano:
“When we are told that we can request [projects] … we assume that it can only come from two sources—PDAF [the Priority Development Assistance Fund or pork barrel] or from savings. We did not know there was such a program as DAP,” Cayetano said.
The fact that the Senators didn’t know that there was such as thing
as “Disbursement Acceleration Program” only means that it was not
included in the 2011-2012 budget, which also means that its use was not
approved by members of Congress.
Malacanang also claimed that they already abolished DAP together with
the pork barrel of the lawmakers. But the truth is, the pork barrel of
the lawmakers hasn’t been abolished. The lawmakers are still currently
deliberating it. The Senate President, Franklin Drilon himself admits
that abolition of the PDAF is “not easy after all”. Drilon cited that “only three (lawmakers) so far have written him of their desire to waive their PDAF.”
Our best guess is that two of those would be Senator Panfilo Lacson
and Joker Arroyo, two senators who already do not avail of pork barrel
funds anyway. This leads us to conclude that most of the senators still
want their pork barrel funds. This just proves how thick faced Filipino
lawmakers are. Despite its unconstitutionality and the calls by some
sectors of the public for the pork’s abolition, the lawmakers still
don’t want to give in.
Career options haven’t improved much for Filipinos under the BS Aquino regime.
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) also tried to justify DAP by saying that “millions of pesos from the DAP were released to lawmakers to ramp up government spending and help accelerate economic expansion”.
Well, no wonder only a few members of the elite can feel the effects of
this “economic growth”. Billions of funds used as government spending
to “accelerate the economic expansion” could have included personal
spending sprees for the members of Congress. In short, PDAF and DAP were
most likely used for personal consumption by the lawmakers.
So while Government spending may have contributed to the much-talked
about 7.1% economic growth rate and credit rating upgrade, the reason
why it hardly makes a difference to the poorest members of society is
because the government’s economic policy doesn’t include job creation.
Despite all the money spent by government, many poor people still don’t
have a steady source of income.
It seems BS Aquino’s government doesn’t realize that when people have
jobs, they have more spending power and they won’t have to rely too
much on government’s handouts. Unfortunately, the number of Filipinos
who can understand that concept is so small it is enough to make one
lose faith in the Filipino people in general.
[Photo of 'tambays' courtesy AboutPh.com.]
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