Exploiting the poor

The recent disasters devastating our country indeed serve as wake up calls for all of us. Actually these unfortunate events have already awakened us on how extensive the losses and serious the damages could be when there is bad governance. They have also finally laid bare before our very eyes the sad state of leadership and politics in this country.

In a crisis of such proportion a nation should have rallied around its leader and unite in a concerted effort to immediately alleviate the plight of the victims and to help the country get back on its feet. Its President should have gotten all out support to any proposed rehabilitation plans and their budgets. But in our case so much bickering still supervened even in the proposal for supplemental budget of P10-12 billion for rehabilitation due to the mistrust in the leadership. To be sure, the source of the additional appropriation should not have been an issue anymore had the President simply coaxed her allies in Congress to readily agree on utilizing their Congressional pork in view of the urgency of the situation. This mistrust is also very apparent in the slow and inadequate response to the appeal for foreign aid. Even Filipinos in foreign lands who would like to help their countrymen are quite hesitant to entrust the distribution of their relief goods and other financial assistance to the government. They would rather send them directly to the victims or course them through private organizations.

In the field of politics, the picture is equally dismaying. Amidst so much hardship, sufferings, and sorrows of millions of Filipinos due to loss of lives and properties, some known aspirants for the Presidency, Vice Presidency and the Senate gaudily continue their politicking by ostentatiously spending hundreds of thousands or millions of pesos for their inane infomercials on Radio, TV and Newspapers promoting their intended candidacies. Never for a moment did they deem it proper to commiserate with their suffering countrymen by temporarily stopping their highly questionable premature campaigning. It never occurred in their minds to just donate their money for use in the ongoing relief operations. On the contrary, they spend much more to further promote their candidacies by distributing relief goods to victims with their names on them. They have taken advantage of the situation to enhance their chances of realizing their selfish ambitions.

They even insult the intelligence of Filipinos and prey on the ignorance of the poor in promoting their candidacies. Villar keeps on harping about his poor and humble beginnings yet he spends his riches as extravagantly as would belie his poor beginnings. True, he gives dole-outs to the poor but only to get their votes and gain power while the poor he helps remain poor and dependent on dole outs. Villar will be like Erap if he wins the Presidency. Erap also openly professed he is para sa mahirap but he is the only one who apparently became rich when he came into power while the mahirap became more mahirap and a lot more miserable.

The same is true of Erap’s running mate, Binay. His track record while in office shows that like Erap he projects an image of being para sa mahirap but his lifestyle can compare with those of the rich and famous. In fact some critics dub him as “Erap Jr.” The only difference in their track record is that Erap was convicted of the crime of plunder and was just immediately pardoned while Binay has so far eluded any conviction for corruption although he cannot deny that asset wise he is much better off and more affluent now than when he first became Mayor of Makati. His present lifestyle is clearly not commensurate with his salary as Mayor even of a first class city. As the legal maxim goes, res ipsa loquitor or the thing speaks for itself.

More deplorable is Erap and Binay’s announcement of their team-up while the nation is still in the throes of so much grief and gloom especially among the mahihirap with whom they identify themselves. Their move all the more betrays their real motive. They are merely paying lip service to their para sa mahihirap stance. They are just exploiting the poor to advance their selfish political ambitions.

Moreover such announcement tends to muddle the political picture and further sow confusion among the electorate. The question of whether Erap can still run for president pursuant to Article VII Section 4 of the Constitution is not yet conclusively and authoritatively resolved. He should have filed a petition with the Supreme Court first to settle this issue. He cannot just rely on the interpretation of his legal advisers. When a Constitutional provision is not clear and subject to different interpretation, the SC as the final arbiter determines the intent of its framers by examining the records of its deliberation. And according to the records of the Constitutional Commission on this particular provision, the framers intended to limit the number of times a person can be elected as president. The key word in the provision is “any” as descriptive of the word “reelection”. The clear intent of the framers as borne by the records of their deliberations is that anybody who has already been elected president whether he finishes his term or not, cannot run again for president. Therefore, Erap cannot run again for President.

Another tandem that could not stop politicking while the nation is still in tears and picking up the pieces from a most traumatic experience, is the Nationalist People’s Coalition’s Escudero-Legarda team. They just could not wait for the right time to announce their plans. They are just being true to form in so far as their backers are concerned who are the oligarchs and cronies during the Marcos regime. Certainly, the Philippines should already be spared from a return of oligarchy and cronyism which this tandem apparently represents.

If we really want a real change in our politics and in governance we should not return or put these people on the seat of power. They do not deserve our votes and we do not deserve the kind of government they will inflict upon us.

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