Missing the point, totally

After President Noynoy Aquino’s jaw-dropping revelations regarding the numerous and absurd salaries and benefits of MWSS board members, officials and employees, they now say that they are willing to moderate the said salaries and benefits.

To quote a catch-phrase of two years ago, they are now willing to moderate their greed. But not before feeling maligned by the chief executive’s SONA, where the agency was specifically mentioned with regards to the extravagance of a government owned and operated corporation. Maligned because all those said benefits were the fruits of a collective bargaining agreement forged since the beginning of the union in 1957. They have totally missed the point.

In the US, companies like Enron had the same practice. Salaries and benefits of the CEOs were astronomically absurd. The company had overhead expenses that were top heavy. All this, in spite of falsified reports that the company was doing well. We all know what happened to Enron.

Another is AIG, the insurance giant. Even after the worldwide economic crisis, members of the board and high officials decided to celebrate lavishly after the company was bailed out by the US government. Since both companies are privately owned and operated, we can chalk this all up to corporate greed. Going back to the MWSS.

The MWSS is a government owned and operated company. In other words, it is the government who pays for all those salaries and benefits. In other words, it is the people who pay for all those salaries and benefits.

Receiving P14,000 every time a board member attends a meeting is just absurd, especially in today’s economic hardships. And apparently they attend around five meetings in a month. This is not even mentioning all the other bonuses that they receive, some mundane as hell.

 Bonuses equivalent to thirty months pay? It seems we are all in the wrong line of work! And to think that this was all tolerated by past administrations, and if President Aquino did not expose it in his SONA, it would have gone on.

With people actually having to contend with queuing up for rationed water, and retirees still waiting for their pensions, all this transcends the obscene. It may actually be criminal.

If the MWSS were a privately owned company, it would have folded years ago. Obviously, there is no such thing as an economic crisis in the MWSS.

There is a call to expose the other GOCCs, and I believe the Aquino administration will. In fact, the President has already provided a way out, that is for the board members, officials and employees to voluntarily resign. It would be interesting to see what other revelations are in store for the people. Like the revelation that we are practically swimming in rice?

And for the “experts” who criticized the President’s SONA, would you rather he talked the talk, or walk the walk? Cut him some slack, he just got here.