Not the pork barrel per se, but the refusal of the political elite to scrap it, is radicalizing the nation. People are getting disenchanted with piecemeal reforms. They want an overhaul of the dynastic political system – starting with the pork barrel on which it feeds.
From press reports and personal experience, people know they’re being robbed of hundred billions of pesos that otherwise should be spent for their welfare. What’s inflaming them into concerted action is that the government is doing nothing to redress their grievance.
As a youth leader put it, “Both Houses of Congress refuse to probe the pork barrel scams, for the senators and congressmen are complicit. All the NBI is doing is hunt for one pork fixer, Janet Lim Napoles. All the justice department is doing is talk. They’re ignoring the elephant in the room.â€
Meanwhile, with no one being jailed, the exposed crooks are threatening the lives of the pork whistleblowers. Government inaction implies that it cares not if the truth-tellers are silenced; meaning, theirs is a futile cause.
In school campuses, offices, and family gatherings, the only topic is how miserable people’s lives are now, from the pork and related plunders. One million more Filipinos were jobless last March, pushing the number of un- and underemployed to a fourth of the 45-million work force. One million more families went hungry in the second quarter of 2013, from the first; meaning there are now close to five million in all, again a fourth of the population.
Further alienating the people from their government are the daily woes in dealing with corrupt and inept agencies. Police extort money from them like criminals; local officials can’t fix the flooding; transport offices have no vehicle license plates and stickers to give out. It’s a total breakdown of services. No relief is in sight, as the political leaders’ minds are only on what more they can steal.
That one fixer alone, Napoles, reportedly earned P5-billion cut, ten percent of the total loot, means that her 28 client-legislators pocketed P50 billion. And there are more Napoleses and thieving lawmakers out there. The latest Commission on Audit report on pork in 2007-2009 shows that 18 senators and 182 congressmen – the majority – filched P113 billion.
The grumbling is not about lawmakers alone. President Noynoy Aquino too is being derided for the pork. After all, the yearly national budget that contains the P200-million pork per senator and P70 million per congressman comes from Malacañang. That’s a total of P27 billion waiting to be pocketed. And Aquino is reported to have his own P25-billion pork for 2014.
The cry is not merely to clean up the pork system, but to end it. Leaving pork slabs in the hands of politicos is like letting the snake into the chicken coop. After Napoles is arrested or rubbed out and fades from the news, the politicos will see that the coast is clear and so resume their pork scams.
They simply can’t be trusted with people’s money. With the restoration of Congress in 1987, legislators started with a few million pesos in pork, which they since have doubled and redoubled. At present it is P1.2 billion for a senator’s six-year tenure, and P210 million for a congressman’s three years.
At one point they pretended to reform the pork by leaving to the budget department and the implementing agencies the money handling, and supposedly limiting their role to identifying the recipient projects or NGOs. It turned out from the exposure of Napoles’ modus operandi that the projects and NGOs were bogus, the fund releasers were bribed, and the lawmakers took the bulk of the loot. Not to be outdone, even governors, provincial board members, mayors, and city or municipal councilors now have pork barrels too.
Disgruntled folk are suggesting ways to fight back. Some urge a tax boycott if the legislators insist on inserting more pork in the 2014 budget. Others want stronger action. A blog-caster writes that if townsfolk maul a pickpocket of a few measly pesos, then more so they should those who steal billions.
Spreading in blogs, e-mails, and texts are exhortations to join two mass actions. One is set for Friday August 23rd, the other on Monday the 26th, both at the Luneta in Manila. Simultaneous demonstrations are being planned in other major cities.
The executive and legislative branches would do well to heed the people’s cry. Otherwise, the rallies might turn into riots like those that recently tore across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
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Calling all alumni and resident members of the Sigma Kappa Pi. Sign up with your chapter to join the 45th anniversary activities:
• Aug. 29, Thursday, wreath laying at the Bonifacio Monument, Vinzons’ Hall, U.P.-Diliman;
• Aug. 30, Friday, ∑Kπ Chapter Residents’ Jamboree, Lucban, Quezon, with founder Luzvimindo David and ∑Kπ Alumni Foundation president Jojo Salas;
• Aug. 31, Saturday, free medical-dental services, soup kitchens, and donations to the poor in the morning, and the ∑Kπ Anniversary Fellowship night, also in Lucban.
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Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).
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E-mail: jariusbondoc@gmail.com
Columnist Jarius Bondoc is on medical leave. His column will resume soon.