UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
Recent national developments are disturbing, to say the least. With Senate hearings revealing the rot in Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO)/Internet Gaming Licensee (IGL) (thanks to Sen. Risa Hontiveros), media had a field day covering the exposés detailing how some local governments had been compromised by foreign nationals running criminal enterprises right under their noses. Then came the Quad Comm investigations where explosive revelations about the extrajudicial killings (EJK) surfaced, which implicated the former president and his underlings in a reward system for killing “drug” targets. The more prominent the personality killed, the higher the reward.
In the Senate, a re-electionist senator is proposing that ROTC be made mandatory with a bill that will cost ₱8 billion a year to implement. The said bill was also endorsed by several other senators and given priority status for enactment into law.
Congress is also poised to enact the national budget that allots ₱65.17 billion for unprogrammed projects. If this is so, why was Philhealth ordered to fork over close to ₱90 billion of its funds, which was supposed to cover unprogrammed projects? Where will the balance of this sum go?
With all these going on, is anybody in power giving any attention to more fundamental and existential problems afflicting the country?
A recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey shows that self-rated hunger among poor Filipinos increased to 22.9 percent from 17.6 percent just last June. This means that their families experienced involuntary hunger, or “being hungry and not having anything to eat at least once in the past six months.” With 59 percent of those surveyed rating themselves as “poor,” and 13 percent as “borderline poor,” that’s almost 18 million of the total population experiencing hunger on a regular basis.
Along with being food-poor, one-third of children are physically and mentally stunted due to malnutrition. These children fare poorly in school, and it shows in our students being among the last in PISA scores. No wonder they can’t read or write or perform basic mathematics. With poor comprehension, they will be severely handicapped in life and condemned to being menial workers. They will also likely make bad choices in elections.
Here we are with hunger, poverty and an educational crisis stalking the nation, not to mention our being food-insecure, and farmers and fishermen surviving on a hand-to-mouth basis, and our politicians are worried about mandatory ROTC?
We also have horrendous traffic in our cities, pollution and natural calamities exacerbated by poor environmental planning and climate change. Our country is the leading polluter of plastics, literally drowning us in an ocean of sachets.
If you look at the current pending bills in the Philippine Senate, amid the hundreds of proposals, you will find very few that actually address these gut issues.
When do you think our lawmakers will try to pass laws that actually make a difference for our people, who are suffering from rampant poverty and hunger? Or propose comprehensive solutions to learning poverty and stunting?
It seems some congressmen and senators are far too detached from these issues that they concern themselves with more frivolous matters that amuse them. Or that they would rather bicker among themselves as to who gets the plum posts or the biggest pork barrel.
It has gotten so bad that families are fighting among themselves on who should get the elective positions in their bailiwick. Whole provinces are up for grabs, and there are no other feasible contenders for the major posts all the way down to the cities and towns, even barangays. Such is the sad, nay, pathetic state of Philippine politics, where we have sank into dynastic politics befitting of the Medieval Age.
Or perhaps, the current situation pleases them. After all, voters with limited comprehension cannot even grasp their own situation, so they vote frivolously for the candidate who can do the best “budots,” or who has good looks, or who can sing a tune or two, or regale them with corny jokes. So, let’s keep them dumb and ignorant.
So, they’re poor? All the better for politicos who dole out “ayuda” with which they get the votes, or who show up at launchings of “malasakit centers,” both of which are funded by taxes we paid from our hard-earned work.
They’re victims of natural disasters that were aggravated by poor mining practices or deficient or non-existent flood control projects? Well, good that they will receive more “aid” from the mayors, governors, congressmen who hold the funds that were supposed to prevent such disasters, who they will vote into office again and again.
They are stuck in hours-long traffic? Too bad for them they don’t have security escorts with “wang-wangs” to clear the way like they do for political big wigs.
We can go on and on, but it’s too nauseating so let’s just stop here.