EDITORIAL - Promises that hold no water

Something strange happened outside the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) last Wednesday morning; around a thousand people gathered to supposedly get their share of the “?130 trillion hidden wealth” promised to them.

Most of them were elderly people who had come from different provinces and had walked under the heat of the sun from where they assembled at the Quirino Grandstand to the BSP building along Mabini Street, a distance of around three kilometers.

The alleged leader of the group, Gilbert Langres, showed GMA news a document purportedly proving that the money in the BSP has "matured" and was ready to be claimed.

"Ito ang tinatawag na ang Bagong Lipunan, which is printed with a backup of gold amounting to more than ?130 trillion intended for all Filipinos. Ang kayamanang nakatago dito sa Bangko Sentral ay fully matured na," Langres, was quoted as saying by the GMA report.

But there was nothing for them to get as the BSP said it does not directly provide funds to the public but only remits funds to the government through dividends.

We are not sure who made the promise to Langres or where he got the information that such a fund existed and was ready to claim. However, this does seem to be another case of people not being able to determine fake news or false information when they get it.

Had those people been more aware of what is real and what isn’t they would have not just been spared a long walk under the heat of the sun, which has proven fatal for some people in this severe heat, they would have also saved themselves the trouble of spending a lot of resources to go to Manila as well as the heartbreak of not getting any of the promised money at all.

With the coming mid-year elections, it’s a time of “promise”. Meaning some people who want to get elected will make all the necessary promises to make people vote for them. In the face of this drought and the coming election we should be able to determine who is making what promise and if the promises they make actually hold water.