Our democracy is literally in tatters and I've been saying that the Philippine Bus is literally broken down and needs fixin'. But unfortunately that is lost upon a great majority of the Filipino people many of whom are uneducated and whose only thoughts are focused on the coming 2016 Presidential elections. We can understand that our poor Filipinos couldn't care any less what happens to this country because for them it doesn't matter who will be the next President…they will always be poor anyway.
But for those coming from the upper crust… we expect them to realize that the country is in its worst political state since Martial Law was declared. This is why I was totally surprised when Mr. Washington SyCip, founder of SyCip, Gorres & Velayo (SGV), asked Sen. Grace Poe during the Asian Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility in a Makati Hotel if she would consider running for president. Is Washington SyCip getting senile?
Thankfully Sen. Grace Poe told Mr. SyCip that she really didn't have any plans for running because she is just barely a year as a senator. Well, at least she was honest about certain things and didn't jump into the fray and therefore she has her head on the ground. However this is the problem when people especially the educated ones cannot even recognize the serious defects in our political system… and just like the millions of our unwashed masses, they merely ask… "Who's gonna be the next driver of the old and decrepit Philippine Bus?
A few days ago, I got a phone call from an old friend, Mother Lily Monteverde of Regal Films, to ask me if I would support Grace Poe if she would run for president. I told her that I wouldn't because she really doesn't know the real situation in this country. She lives outside the Philippines and only came back when her father Fernando Poe, Jr. run for president. What this country needs is a true reformer who can change our political system and might I add… the attitude of the Filipino people.
I asked Mother Lily whether she thinks that Grace Poe took advantage of her father's name? Then I reminded her that her real name is Llamanzares and we know too well that if she used her real name, I don't think that she'd be a senator today. One thing for sure, Grace Poe doesn't even have a political party to ride on and this is exactly what I've been harping for many years now… that it is time to get out of personality politics.
Sure, Sen. Grace Poe may be high on the surveys, but that doesn't mean anything unless she has a platform of government. This is what all presidentiables should have. Pres. Benigno Aquino III too had a platform of government, which is called Daang Matuwid or the Straight Path.
But you already know where this Straight Path has brought this country…into the brink of a political turmoil with two branches of the government poised to cut off the Supreme Court. This is something that PNoy should have avoided like a plaque, but somehow after he removed former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Renato Corona from the Bench, he became a control freak thinking that he could become a dictator without even declaring martial law!
While the presidential elections are still two years away, we should focus on the most fundamental issues of the day. For instance, we ought to the ask or demand from the Office of the Ombudsman to start filing cases against senators and congressmen who are in the notorious Janet Lim Napoles list. Why is it that only Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Sen. Bong Revilla, and Sen. Jinggoy Estrada are being indicted and incarcerated? This is something that the Filipino people should demand from the Ombudsman otherwise those people would be seeking reelection in the 2016 elections.
Meanwhile, the can of worms in the Philippine Postal Corp. (PhilPost) has been exposed by Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago and that the worms have accumulated P5 billion of unliquidated cash advances from the Department of Social Welfare and Development. This huge amount of cash advances was supposedly meant for the distribution to a million beneficiaries of the Conditional Cash Transfer or the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino program in 9,657 municipalities in exchange for sending their children to school. So what happened here? Why can't Dinky Soliman or PhilPost account for this money? Yes, they should be investigated!
A Commission on Audit report on this case found that these unliquidated funds in the hands of PhilPost postmasters "exposed these funds to malversation, theft and other risks. Methinks that Sen. Santiago has found another dirt in the Aquino Regime's closet. PNoy's claim of having an honest government is fast going down the drain!