The use of foundations to abscond tax money?

Today, allow me to greet with honor and blessing Engr. Gavino and Esther Unchuan on the occasion of their 65th wedding anniversary, which their children and grandchildren will be celebrating at the Cebu White Sands Resort in Maribago Beach in Mactan. In this day and age where people have already forgotten the sanctity of marriage, where marriages are for convenience rather than for creating families, rare do marriages last as long as the Unchuan couple have lasted. But even those that last, few are able to celebrate a union that lasts 65 years of wedded bliss! So here's looking to celebrating your 70th wedding anniversary! This is a feat few people can help but be happy and proud to celebrate with friends and family!

* * *

If there was anything that temporarily took the news off the "Fertilizer Scam" it was the tragedy last Saturday at the Philsport Arena a.k.a. Ultra Stadium. But with that breaking news behind us, it is time to look back at this obvious scam where allegedly, politicians are able to get government money into their own pockets by apparently creating dubious foundations, designed for helping the poor. But in the end, we don't know where the money really ends up. If you recall, this happened to former Pres. Joseph "Erap" Estrada, who had his Muslim-Christian Brotherhood Foundation as a means to allegedly funnel government money into private hands.

But it seems that the Kasosyo Foundation, which allegedly got P6 million from the Fertilizer Funds had as its office at room 102 of the Visayas Community Medical Center where Rep. Antonio Yapha has a clinic. Now whether the Office of the Ombudsman can find a link to him is another story. It's about time that a full-blown investigation be done pronto by the Ombudsman because of the seriousness of this case. The problem is, calls for investigation are being hatched in Congress where we know investigations there end up in a dead end.

Perhaps now would be the right time to ask the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to reveal which foundations have politicians, their friends or families in the board. And another thing… whatever happened to the Ombudsman's investigation of the Perdido Lex of then Vice-Gov. John John Osmeña or Rep. Clavel Asas Martinez's Sikap-Yaman or Girl Scouts investigations? Are they sleeping on this so that the people will forget that this happened here a few years ago?

While we do not want to jump the gun on the Office of the Ombudsman, but it does seem that politicians with malevolent desires use fictitious foundations to funnel our tax money into their pockets. It is time to stop this practice and we just hope that the SEC would cooperate in bringing out the truth to the Filipino people.

* * *

73 people are dead, 359 injured in last Saturday's stampede at the Philsport Arena and no less than Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) is looking for the culprits. No doubt when a tragedy occurs, especially one that is man-made, someone ought to be responsible. Though we must doff our hat to Mr. Gabby Lopez III who openly declared the responsibility of ABS-CBN in this tragedy and offered to pay for the funeral and medical expenses of the victims of this tragedy.

But who could really be blamed for what happened last Saturday? Actually, it is not difficult to find out who the culprits were. They were the people at the back who were pushing the people in front of the crowd. It's really that simple, except that no one will admit in public that they were behind the others who were literally pushed to their deaths. Shame on those people! What's remarkable here is that, the majority of the fatalities, except for a few men, were women. I'm sure that the majority of those who went to the Wowowee anniversary were women.

Opposition Senator Jamby Madrigal says that this incident should be a "Wake-up call because a lot of our people are getting poorer and poorer." Yes, I'm glad that Sen. Jamby realizes that, but I also hope that she knows the reality that one of the biggest obstacle to our nation's growth are the politicians themselves! Sure, sound the wake up call, but a few days from now we'll all settle back to normalcy and forget that this incident ever happened.

Our national malaise can be blamed directly at the people who have been using the poor for their selfish political or financial ends. For decades, politicians wanted the poor to stay poor so that they will sell their votes to those politicians who are just too happy to buy those votes. But the bigger tragedy is that Filipinos never learn their bitter lessons… Never!

* * *

For email responses to this article, write to [email protected].