Unaffected

These are disheartening days. Our congress is lopsided. Our senate has made too many inquiries without results and which have brought the witnesses toward harms way more often than not. Our government services, on the other hand, make willy-nilly deals left and right recklessly spending our tax money. And our President continues to be unaffected by it all.

When will we ever have a strong President and a strong Republic? I remember my late father wrote, “I believe in a strong President, but on condition that such a Chief Executive uses her powers for the welfare of the nation. If she does, she need not worry about reelection. If she doesn’t, then she’ll have to attempt to win by cheating. As for the opposition, I believe it’s time for the Senators and Honorable Members of the House of Representatives to grow up, learn to work with each other and stop bickering over the spoils and committee chairmanships. Perhaps this is too much to ask, but who knows? Someday our politicians may realize that our people’s good, our nation’s survival and progress all depend on how each of them behaves in good conscience. Then we’ll not merely have a just society and a strong republic, but a happy people.”

We need our leaders to be tough.   In order to build a strong nation each mayor, congressman, senator and cabinet member must be firm and independent. If these public servants can be so easily “persuaded”, seduced, bribed or influenced to jump ship, how can they claim independence? Indeed, the now-indignant stalwarts of the opposition don’t look any better than the pro-Administration.

As we enter the crucial months leading to the elections and with all these talks of destabilization and no election, you can try scratching any solon’s back, whether, belonging to the opposition or the majority – you’ll surely find a balimbing.

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What’s this? The election still hasn’t taken place, and there’s “meddling” already? This latest explosive finding takes the cake. The Total Information Management Corporation (TIM) head is linked to the Aboitiz clan close to the First Family. And wasn’t the rift between TIM and Smartmatic caused by disagreement over the “control of money”? There were also talks of TIM officials allegedly asking for P500 million “in jest” from Smartmatic to yield control over the electronic counting system. And now that it seems both companies have settled their differences, there are still those who insist that the planned House inquiry into what had caused the quarrel should push through. Really, another inquiry…more time lost…more tax money flashed down the drain for nothing. Another question comes to mind – will these two companies be able to team up with the Comelec, watchdogs, the media and the electorate in ensuring credible elections?

The Comelec headed by the culpable I mean capable Chairman Jose Melo should make his stand clear on this issue. I also hope the Comelec will be able to account for all their expenses this time around. But you know if you can’t accurately count the ballots what more the money? Ha!

Will all those who expect to receive those immense cash advances kindly come forward and tell us how much money is at stake? As early as now, the Comelec bureaucracy is beginning to stink worse than the sewer. It’s time the President herself gets mad. Or can’t she? Hmmmm.

Is poll automation the only assurance to having clean and honest elections? What about the voter’s identities? So many people register to vote but there have been no controls or stop gap measures to verify every voter’s information. 

I still believe that a national ID (like our SSS card) should be put in place. I remember a few years ago a Voter’s ID was initiated by the Comelec – but what happened to that? The public was able to vote even without that ID. Why not make everything simple and just use the SSS card? I think a voter’s ID is just another way for the Comelec to create rackets for additional income. What do you think? By using the SSS we are certain that all are deserving and valid voters. 

Our country should teach its people to work. The poor must be nurtured and directed toward self-sufficiency and not mendicancy. Allowing only those with SSS cards to vote will mean a control over the electorate, thus, forcing the candidates to come out clean in the race. They will begin to discover (with an ID system in place) that they can’t buy the vote of every Juan dela Cruz, instead they will have to work hard for it.

 I am sure those leftist groups, the civil libertarians and human rights activists will disagree but what the heck. It’s an option. 

In the United States, while there is no national ID requirement, every employee and wage-earner, and even the self-employed, possess Social Security Cards which can be checked against centralized records in a computer. Are Americans any less “free” for such an ID? It guarantees their right to work, and qualify for social benefits, government assistance and other perks. The most coveted document in the USA is a Social Security number. 

Owing to our penchant for eluding or ignoring government registration, our economic planners and fiscal implementers, as well as census-takers, are unable to properly calculate the needs of our burgeoning population. For instance, since many babies in the remote provincial barrios are delivered by unregistered midwives, or relatives and neighbors who don’t bother to report every birth, the government discovers too many unaccounted for Filipinos. These knocked our gross national product and GDP statistics out of kilter. We think we are only 90 million but in reality we are more than what this figure show. We don’t want any of our citizens or their children to go “missing”. That’s what a national ID setup is all about.

We can no longer afford a nation of jaywalkers, “bahala na” artists and paranoids. The challenge today is that we take hold of ourselves, eschew anarchy and chaos, and come together to present a united front in the march to Philippine progress.