Abolish the pork?

Since the pork barrel scam exploded last month the rallying call has been "abolish the pork". In the mass actions on August 26, and in subsequent street protests this has been the urgent call loud and clear. And Congress seems to be listening. Now there are talks of converting the P25 billions allotment in the 2014 budget into an educational fund supportive of the current reforms. If this move will push through all the hullabaloo about this mother of all scams shall have been justified.

But the question is, will this be the end of corruption? I doubt.In the past, corrupt practices of various shapes and shades had been discovered and investigated. Remember the fertilizer scam, the GTZ scandal, the C-5 anomaly, the military retirement fiasco and other major shenanigans? Remember the oil and rice smuggling of recent veritage? If one really lists down the bureaucratic misdemeanors past and present, he could no doubt come up with a long list.

 Abolish the pork? Maybe. But there will surely be other forms of milking the country's coffer dry. Many Filipino bureaucrats, particularly some legislators, are very resourceful when it comes to lining their pockets with ill-gotten wealth. One may not find an item in the GAA about PDAF or pork in next year's budget, but surely there will be other provisions  that will enable a senator or representative to fund his own initiatives, both good and bad,  Of course, guidelines will be appended to these, but who cares? There's always more than one way to skin a cat, so to speak.

As we shake our fists in anger over the P10 billions we lost down the drain of corruption, we should realize that the entire happening is more complicated than what it seems. Those personalities whom media have exposed as involved in the irregularity may just be only a few of the entire klatch of lawmakers who in our way or another profited from the transactions. And since millions were coursed through some government agencies before these reached the dirty hands of NGO people, how many office heads were also involved?

Perhaps, forsensational effects a certain woman has been pinpointed as the author of the scandal. But media might as well have fingered the average Filipino as part of it all,

Picture yourself as a Congressman in a congressional district. Did you get elected without spending a fortune?Yet how much is the government paying you for your honorable presence in Congress? Peanuts, compared to the money you need to prove your usefulness as your people's godfather. You know it: medicine for the sick, tuition money for poor kids, work for the unemployed, repair of barangay chapel, repair or building of classrooms, construction of sports arena, support for local athletes, and so on and on,

Then there's your reelection. You have your die-hards, true, but these can't move without cash handouts. And on election day, hands are extended for more handouts You have to be extra-careful about it, of course, but if what you give is less than your opponents'bonanza how can you make it back to thelegislature?

Patronage politics is the name of the game. It's a reprehensible thing. It's morally wrong. It's scandalous. But sadly it has become part ofthe Filipino's political way of life.

Abolish the pork? Yes, it's possible, but you can't abolish bureaucratic misbehavior as long as the people themselves are abetting it. From the people spring the politicians whose values and character traits come from the bloodstream of the former. Purify this bloodstream and you purify society. Then corruption will be a thing of the past.

 Yet this is easier said than done.Whence is salvation? In the course of Jesus' ministry some of his followers abandoned him, so he asked his disciples,Are you too leaving me? Peter answered, To whom shall we go, Lord? You have the words of eternal life…

As we feel nauseated by corruptions Peter's words should guide us what to do.