As the Election Day approaches and politicians are clinging on to their coffers for the late rush, the nation is momentarily holding its breath for some seeming uncertainties. Sneaky as some incumbents are, the citizenry is a bit jittery as they try to imagine the endless possibilities of this coming election or, should we say, no-election.
This negative outlook is very ironic for a positive exercise as election. As we all understand, election is a formal decision-making process by which we, as a nation, shall choose individuals to hold public office. Presumably, therefore, we must rejoice for the state-bestowed free hand to choose than bearing dictator-provided twisted arms. Certainly, because in the end, he’ll get his wishes not ours.
Because such situation doesn’t exist, obviously therefore, the reason isn’t downright associated with it. Truth to tell, the primordial concern is on our kind of electoral process. That is, from filing of candidacies where nationalities and addresses are even faked, to counts of ballots that could be possibly rigged. Within this span, there are real concerns about the kind of campaign that ranges from hitting below the belt to vote buying.
Indeed, just as imminent as the sun rises again the following day, vote buying will just be as prominent. Thus, the need for money, lots of money. Apart from it, as campaigns have lots of expenditures, ranging from cost of travel for the candidates and their supporters to purchasing of air time for TV and radio advertisements, the need for heaps of it is clear as daylight. Thus, candidates and their fundraisers devote substantial time and effort burning potential benefactors’ phone lines.
As phones ring, there could be many possibilities. Absolutely, everyone is very much aware that as money flows out from a contributor’s pocket, agreements are sealed. Such deals could come in illegitimate favors from government for juicy projects. On the other hand, it could be selfishly a deal for some lucrative cabinet positions or directorship in government corporations. Bluntly, such political donation is, in essence, bribe money. Undeniably too, due to the unfathomable need, on top of these bribe moneys, the candidates themselves will personally shell out huge bundles of it.
With these dirty moneys in circulation, these candidates and contributors will certainly retrieve them and selfishly put them back in their own treasury. Dreadfully, what happened then shall happen again and could even be worst. Undeniably, as contributors take their money back through juicy projects, the elected officials shall have their own heydays amassing lots of it not just to recover amounts spent but also to fill their purses to the hilt to finance future elections. How?
To recall, in 2008, the nation was shocked with the expose’ of Rodolfo “J-Lo” Lozada about the NBN deal. Before that, the Southrail projects’ kickbacks were dominating both the air waves and the print. Then, Malacañang, in trying to downplay the exposes’ repercussions, was in the attack mode to discredit Lozada by counterclaims of fraudulent acts as well.
In less than a year, the country was in the limelight again when the World Bank released debilitating news about the debarment of seven firms and an individual for “engaging in collusive practices under a major Bank-financed roads project in the Philippines”. The World Bank’s investigating team “uncovered evidence of a major cartel involving local and international firms bidding on contracts under phase one of the Philippines National Roads Improvement and Management Program, known as NRIMP 1”. They “closely analyzed the procurement process the firms participated in and conducted numerous interviews before closing the investigations and initiating sanctions proceedings against the entities”.
Had this anomaly not been uncovered by the World Bank, majority of the Filipinos should not have heard about this project. To refresh our countrymen, the LGU Assistance Portal posted that the “National Roads Improvement and Management Program will ensure the preservation of the national roads system through three phases: design, initiation, and operation. This project covered Phase 1 of the Program, and was to establish a well-functioning preventive maintenance program, re-design the road management program, and promote overall policy and institutional reforms.” It further emphasized that there were two main components of the program. First was the civil works which covered infrastructure development and maintenance. Second component was the institutional strengthening, including the planning of financial and human resources for business improvement, a road maintenance fund, and independent organization for policy and institutional reforms. For all these undertakings, the site further noted that the government’s loan payable to the World Bank was a staggering US$150 million. NRIMP 1, supposedly covered road projects in Luzon (Benguet, Mt. Province, Laguna, Quezon, La Union, Bulacan, Tarlac, Albay, Cavite, Camarines Norte), Visayas (Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Cebu) and Mindanao (Zamboanga del Sur, Bukidnon, Surigao Del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Davao Oriental, Davao del Sur, Davao del Norte). With these fiascos, some crooks certainly made lots of money.
Not to be outdone, Cebu has its own share of the limelight as well. As we are all aware of, the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) which cost was initially pegged at P600,000,000 went beyond P800,000,000. Knowing fully well that the lot is owned by the City of Mandaue, then this amount is solely construction related. Visit the CICC and it does not need an engineer’s strong academic background or a 40-year experience in construction business for you to know how blatantly padded it is.
Directly related to that ASEAN Summit fiasco, who can ever forget the lamppost controversy? With some lampposts priced more than P300,000 each, it was then ironically more expensive than one socialized housing unit. Frustratingly, however, while the socialized housing units may last beyond our lifetime, most lampposts are already dead.
On the other hand, the Mandaue Public Market which only showed posts and beams reportedly spent millions already. Seeing through it with just skeletons, even the blind will wonder were the budget went.
What about the purchase of the Balili Property in Naga by the Provincial Capitol? We need not be astute real estate brokers to know how overpriced it is. Paying a lot that is underwater for a price where a middle class subdivision may stand is unbelievable. Done in haste, if they claim to be clean, then, we should entertain the possibility of revising the dictionary’s meaning of the word “dirty”.
All these money recovery measures are consequences of the kind of electoral campaigns we are waging. The penalty, however, of these devious schemes is huge. As politicians and contributors deceitfully siphon money from the government’s treasury through illegitimate deals, the economy is starved with it.
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