Devious politicians: They don’t spend, they invest

Time and again, when roads are still filled with potholes and politicians seem not to care, you should know they don’t need anything from you.  When faced with compelling necessities and where the much needed answers are undeniably in the politicians’ table and they seem to be scantily available, you should know that you are momentarily negligible.  On the other hand, when a known snooty tend to be accommodating and a condemned tightfisted suddenly becomes so generous, you might entertain the idea that the world never runs out of miracles. But truth to tell, more likely, the man is into something else.  The fact is, all style-changing approaches are so compelling for the men and women who had been in it or are yet to squeeze themselves curiously into a messy world of entertainment we call politics, or distinctively, our brand of politics.  A kind of politics that is totally dirty from beginning to end.  This is a kind of politics where every coveted position has a price tag.  Therefore, anyone who can afford gets it.  Obviously, it is a kind of politics where the politicians’ willingness to dangle millions is the main determinant.  Consequently, as they part with it, they shall be equally determined to get it back, of course, with profits.  

But how are returns assured?  There are countless of ways but, absolutely, not from their salaries.  Certainly, they can’t live with salaries alone.  Such countless of ways are the primary reasons of our being undisputedly on top of every corruption survey and despondently, at the bottom of every poverty incidences survey.

To recall, about five years ago, the country was in the limelight when the World Bank (WB) released debilitating news about the debarment of seven firms and an individual for “engaging in collusive practices under a major WB-financed road projects in the Philippines”. The WB’s investigating team “uncovered evidence of a major cartel involving local and international firms bidding on contracts under phase one of the Philippines National Roads Improvement and Management Program”. They “closely analyzed the procurement process the firms participated in and conducted numerous interviews before closing the investigations and initiating sanctions proceedings against the entities”.  As concluded, most of our contractors are indeed cartelizing the bidding process of government projects.  Sadly, had it not been for the World Bank, majority of the Filipinos should not have heard about this project.

On the other hand, if the consequence of the aforementioned fiasco is overpricing, what we are facing today is even worst.  Yes, it is true that we’ve heard a lot about how Janet L. Napoles (JLN) and some lawmakers (via whistleblowers) colluded to siphon taxpayers’ money.  Yet, they (JLN and some lawmakers) claimed, these are surreal.   Or, simply put, these are unfounded.  The Commission on Audit (COA) though reported otherwise. It corroborated whistleblowers’ allegations as seen in their report.  For one, in COA’s audit of the 2004 financial statements of the Department of Agriculture (DA), it said that the purchases of some liquid fertilizers through JLN’s two NGOs were “overstated by between 828% and 1,267% with money value ranging from P34,537,780 to P36,427,375”.  Worst, COA further said that “as of the date of inspection or confirmation of deliveries  of  the  fertilizer,  they  have  not  yet  distributed  the  fertilizer  to the  beneficiaries   who   could   have   availed  of  the  benefits  from said  fertilizer”.  Clearly, it frankly means that the initiative is non-existent.

Apparently, with these businessmen (like JLN and some contractors) who are willing to bribe pairing with our politicians who are looking for ways to recover every penny spent (during elections) and accumulate even more, honest biddings will never happen.  As usual, they shall be active participants in a collusive scheme designed to establish bid prices at artificial and non-competitive levels.  Consequently, they deprived us the benefits of free and open competition and/or transparency in the conduct of these transactions. As a result, the poorest of the poor who are really wanting that much needed economic boost continue to suffer.

Such is the sad reality of our kind of politics.  A kind of politics that is mainly money-driven.  Where ordinary men from nowhere initially presented themselves to the people for service and became powerful (and corrupt) politicians once elected.  Or men who are already successful businessmen in their own right and run either to protect their interests or widen them.

Indeed, regardless of how politicians’ inexhaustible rhetoric may try to portray, they (except for a few) are still selfish opportunists.  Therefore, they just don’t spend, they invest.

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