Jokers
Jokers
Updated 11:08pm (Mla time) Sept 05, 2004
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the September 6, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
THE IDEA, of course, is to show that they are people possessed of much nobility and spirit of self-sacrifice. That is the congressmen's offer to part with some of their money for the good of the country. But it reeks of irony.
Jose de Venecia has already offered to donate a million pesos to the survival kitty. And last I heard, he managed to inveigle, or coerce, the passengers of PAL PR 001, composed of the First Couple and their friends who were winging their way to China, to cough up as well P350 million to the cause. Most of them from their own pockets. One businessman was heard to complain, "This has been my most expensive foreign trip ever."
Not to be outdone, several congressmen have offered to donate their salaries to the nation. This was their way of pitching in to help the country stave off disaster, they said.
In fact, what all this shows is not a group of self-sacrificing heroes but a bunch of self-aggrandizing con men. Alfredo Lim is right to retort in response to De Venecia's public display of beneficence, "Buti pa siya, maraming pera (Good for him he has a lot of money)."
As to the congressmen's willingness to part with their salaries, what all this does is to show their salaries are the least of the things congressmen bother with. That is because their salaries are the least of their sources of income, their pork barrel is first. The contracts for the designated projects in their pork barrel have a way of being cornered by friends, relatives and themselves. I recall that before martial law, candidates routinely promised not to accept any pay if they won and to donate the money instead to their favorite charities. The voters, who were smarter in those days and knew a con when they saw one, routinely rejected them. Especially since the candidates who were promising this were the ones massively employing guns, goons and gold to get elected. The voters could not imagine how people who went to this trouble did so only to make noble sacrifices afterward.
The same is true of the businessmen who complain of being fleeced by De Venecia. Commiseration is not my first instinct when I hear their complaint, apprehension is. Apprehension was what I felt as well when Mike Arroyo's guests during his birthday bash complained about being separated from hundreds of thousands of pesos of their money to finance Arroyo's favorite charity. It is not merely that Arroyo fanatically subscribes to the motto, "Charity begins at home," it is that businessmen who are fleeced in this way invariably find ways to recover their wool, with interest-that is, by fleecing others in turn, namely the public.
But it's scary how government officials, elective and appointive, seem to be taking the fiscal crisis as an opportunity for one-upmanship or PR, or worse a joke. Joker Arroyo, who is one of the few non-jokers in government, is not joking when he warns of the severity of the oncoming storm and what it would take to avert it. That is not by token "gestures of serving coffee only during meetings, which will amount only to a few thousand pesos [in savings]."
What will avert the crisis is for GMA (President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) first of all to admit her part in making it, which is the only way she can reclaim any right to propose to rescue us from it. No contrition, no forgiveness. Certainly, no credibility. GMA is the chief cause of the budget deficit. As Joker points out: "President Arroyo's borrowing binge for three years, 2001 to 2003, was more than the combined borrowings of Presidents Ramos and Estrada for eight years, 1992 to 2000 (italics mine), data for which is available in Sen. Ralph Recto's Ways and Means Committee." Napocor alone has incurred losses amounting to P60 billion.
GMA did manage in the case of Angelo de la Cruz to portray herself as his savior-no small thanks to a people who could not remember how she became the spokesperson for George W. Bush's war in Iraq, thereby turning Filipino OFWs in the Gulf into fair game for Arab terrorists. She may not do the same thing here- free herself from blame, or make the country forget about it-at the very least because the stakes are high (it is not just the survival of one Filipino at stake, it is that of the nation). At the very most because we do not understand the origins of this problem, we will be nowhere near to solving it.
Which brings us to the second part of the equation: What will avert this crisis is GMA herself leading by example, which is not just giving up her own pork barrel in the form of billions in contingency funds but in putting a lid on her borrowings. As Joker reminds us, Napocor incurred its debts "in compliance of the directive of President Arroyo." Badgering congressmen to give up their salaries, or even their pork barrel, while allowing government corporations to continue to borrow and government financial institutions to give out corporate loans to cronies, is like putting out a pail to catch drops of water from a leaky faucet in the kitchen while doing nothing about a busted pipe in the bathroom.
The crisis won't disappear with GMA and De Venecia soliciting voluntary or involuntary contributions from congressmen and businessmen, or token scrimping and saving. Though while at this, it won't hurt if GMA did as she preached even at this superficial level. How can you be believed when you issue stern warnings against government officials who waste public funds while bringing your family and friends with you on an official trip to China? Surely, this country does not lack for Chinese restaurants, specializing in Peking duck, to bring them to?
What will avert the crisis is nothing less than a wholesale change of government's lifestyle- before the people decide to make a wholesale change in their government again.
Updated 11:08pm (Mla time) Sept 05, 2004
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the September 6, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
THE IDEA, of course, is to show that they are people possessed of much nobility and spirit of self-sacrifice. That is the congressmen's offer to part with some of their money for the good of the country. But it reeks of irony.
Jose de Venecia has already offered to donate a million pesos to the survival kitty. And last I heard, he managed to inveigle, or coerce, the passengers of PAL PR 001, composed of the First Couple and their friends who were winging their way to China, to cough up as well P350 million to the cause. Most of them from their own pockets. One businessman was heard to complain, "This has been my most expensive foreign trip ever."
Not to be outdone, several congressmen have offered to donate their salaries to the nation. This was their way of pitching in to help the country stave off disaster, they said.
In fact, what all this shows is not a group of self-sacrificing heroes but a bunch of self-aggrandizing con men. Alfredo Lim is right to retort in response to De Venecia's public display of beneficence, "Buti pa siya, maraming pera (Good for him he has a lot of money)."
As to the congressmen's willingness to part with their salaries, what all this does is to show their salaries are the least of the things congressmen bother with. That is because their salaries are the least of their sources of income, their pork barrel is first. The contracts for the designated projects in their pork barrel have a way of being cornered by friends, relatives and themselves. I recall that before martial law, candidates routinely promised not to accept any pay if they won and to donate the money instead to their favorite charities. The voters, who were smarter in those days and knew a con when they saw one, routinely rejected them. Especially since the candidates who were promising this were the ones massively employing guns, goons and gold to get elected. The voters could not imagine how people who went to this trouble did so only to make noble sacrifices afterward.
The same is true of the businessmen who complain of being fleeced by De Venecia. Commiseration is not my first instinct when I hear their complaint, apprehension is. Apprehension was what I felt as well when Mike Arroyo's guests during his birthday bash complained about being separated from hundreds of thousands of pesos of their money to finance Arroyo's favorite charity. It is not merely that Arroyo fanatically subscribes to the motto, "Charity begins at home," it is that businessmen who are fleeced in this way invariably find ways to recover their wool, with interest-that is, by fleecing others in turn, namely the public.
But it's scary how government officials, elective and appointive, seem to be taking the fiscal crisis as an opportunity for one-upmanship or PR, or worse a joke. Joker Arroyo, who is one of the few non-jokers in government, is not joking when he warns of the severity of the oncoming storm and what it would take to avert it. That is not by token "gestures of serving coffee only during meetings, which will amount only to a few thousand pesos [in savings]."
What will avert the crisis is for GMA (President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) first of all to admit her part in making it, which is the only way she can reclaim any right to propose to rescue us from it. No contrition, no forgiveness. Certainly, no credibility. GMA is the chief cause of the budget deficit. As Joker points out: "President Arroyo's borrowing binge for three years, 2001 to 2003, was more than the combined borrowings of Presidents Ramos and Estrada for eight years, 1992 to 2000 (italics mine), data for which is available in Sen. Ralph Recto's Ways and Means Committee." Napocor alone has incurred losses amounting to P60 billion.
GMA did manage in the case of Angelo de la Cruz to portray herself as his savior-no small thanks to a people who could not remember how she became the spokesperson for George W. Bush's war in Iraq, thereby turning Filipino OFWs in the Gulf into fair game for Arab terrorists. She may not do the same thing here- free herself from blame, or make the country forget about it-at the very least because the stakes are high (it is not just the survival of one Filipino at stake, it is that of the nation). At the very most because we do not understand the origins of this problem, we will be nowhere near to solving it.
Which brings us to the second part of the equation: What will avert this crisis is GMA herself leading by example, which is not just giving up her own pork barrel in the form of billions in contingency funds but in putting a lid on her borrowings. As Joker reminds us, Napocor incurred its debts "in compliance of the directive of President Arroyo." Badgering congressmen to give up their salaries, or even their pork barrel, while allowing government corporations to continue to borrow and government financial institutions to give out corporate loans to cronies, is like putting out a pail to catch drops of water from a leaky faucet in the kitchen while doing nothing about a busted pipe in the bathroom.
The crisis won't disappear with GMA and De Venecia soliciting voluntary or involuntary contributions from congressmen and businessmen, or token scrimping and saving. Though while at this, it won't hurt if GMA did as she preached even at this superficial level. How can you be believed when you issue stern warnings against government officials who waste public funds while bringing your family and friends with you on an official trip to China? Surely, this country does not lack for Chinese restaurants, specializing in Peking duck, to bring them to?
What will avert the crisis is nothing less than a wholesale change of government's lifestyle- before the people decide to make a wholesale change in their government again.
posted by Dante at 10:55 AM
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