Sobering up after barrels of pork

The public outrage over the abuse and misuse of pork barrel funds is undoubtedly reminiscent of the collective wrath that swept the nation over the jueteng-gate scandal, culminating in the second People Power Revolution that set the democratic system back a number of years. Indeed, even a race that has been consistently acknowledged as among the happiest people on earth can also rise up in anger, though sometimes it may take 300 years before Filipinos decide they have had enough of the Spanish colonizers.

Some say the August 26 Luneta march only mustered half a million, while those who attended insist the number is higher considering the rallies in other places here and abroad. Nevertheless, it was a success with pockets of people speaking, singing, and dancing with no need for a leader to formally organize or prompt the protesters. In fact, the pork outrage registered pretty strongly through social media and the Internet — the place where it all started — with blog posts articulating the simmering sentiment of many Filipinos whose emotions are a painful mix of fury, disgust and despair — feeling “so cheated that what we yield as our taxes was used to sustain lavish lifestyles that we can not even dream of remotely achieving,” wrote film director Joey Reyes in his blog titled Choking on My Adobo.

“What is so painful to realize at this moment is that you no longer know who to believe… Just now I received a text message from my accountant quoting the exact amount I have to pay for my monthly VAT… and realized that something already died in me. It is not only about the amount I have to pay… it is the feeling of helplessness that goes with the payment. And I do not want to be helpless any more,” Reyes declared.

No doubt the pork scandal has generated so much suspicion and distrust not only against legislators but almost all public officials, underscoring the cynicism afflicting Filipinos. In fact, people are ascribing political color to the Napoles issue, with some accusing Secretary Mar Roxas of capitalizing on Napoles’ surrender to advance his 2016 agenda. Others are convinced this could only hurt Mar’s chances because he is alienating a lot of people, even those from his own party who feel they could be made into the proverbial sacrificial lamb if deemed politically expedient. 

The simmering rage has prompted demands for the abolition of the pork barrel — a system brought here by the Americans and which has been in existence since the 1870s. In hindsight however, allowing our emotions and anger to color our judgment could cost us more in the end. We saw this happen in 2001 when we kicked out a duly elected president because of the indignation triggered by allegations that P200 million in jueteng payback was channeled to Erap Estrada’s Muslim Youth Foundation. Looking back, the amount is peanuts compared to the figures we hear today. We paid dearly for that emotional outburst — setting back the presidential term — giving a president an unprecedented nine years with the corruption fallout alleged to be as much as P900 billion.

Instead of going forward, we went four steps backward – something that we should avoid, not allowing the prevailing anger over the abuses to result in the total scrapping of the pork barrel. No one will argue that the abuses should never be allowed to happen again; what is needed is the refinement of the system to make it almost impossible for the likes of Janet Napoles to take advantage of, or go around, the system again. 

Let’s face it, the honor system is perceived to be virtually non-existent in a developing country like the Philippines. It takes so much effort to resist being corrupt when one is in government and suddenly faced with many opportunities to do so. But it’s also totally wrong for us to generalize and tar all public officials with the same feather. After all, there are genuine people who really have public service in mind and are sincere in their desire to help their constituents.

As former Parañaque Congressman Roilo Golez pointed out last Thursday when he spoke before the Manila Rotary, the pork barrel can be put to good use if properly implemented. Many of us subscribe to the decision of the Palace not to completely scrap the pork, because doing so would virtually stop government. People may not like it but as Palace Spokesperson Ed Lacierda pointed out, typhoons or calamities cannot be scrapped, and when disaster strikes the Chief Executive will need the ready funds to help people particularly the poor get their lives back together again.

When all is said and done — full transparency and information is the key to the solution. People have the right to know where or how taxpayers’ money is being spent — and the Freedom of Information Act is fast becoming a major necessity to plug the hole. With the advent of social media, exposure is now easier. Presidents will become more careful, legislators will be more prudent in disbursing their pork barrel and hopefully, corruption will be substantially cut down.

Let’s step back from our boiling rage and soberly think about the whole issue. We should learn from past mistakes instead of allowing our emotions to cloud our judgment. We need to overhaul the system — not be a slave to the system. It’s like a machine that keeps getting fine-tuned, with the bugs and glitches taken away to make it better almost to the point of perfection. But then again, the world is imperfect  — only in heaven will we see perfection, we hope.

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