By Jose Ma. Montelibano
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 21:08:00 02/04/2010
THERE have been a number of exciting and controversial news lately. I am personally affected by some of them, especially reports on the latest survey results from SWS and Pulse Asia showing the dangerous slide of Noynoy Aquino. I have much I want to say about how concerted attacks on the presidential front runner and the massive spending on television commercials have finally cracked his solid lead.
However, I know many will write their own interpretations and commentaries on this topic. What I do know is that reports of maybe more important information will soon be completely forgotten even before it grabs the attention it deserves. I had wanted to raise public awareness on it but had to wait until it is Friday to get an article out in this publication.
I refer to hunger. I refer to how the 3rd quarter of 2009 ended with a bang that many know to be politics and/or Christmas but to me is how hunger incidence set new records affecting 23.7 percent of Filipinos. Those who have been following my column may remember how I have dedicated articles on the same subject matter in the past. And I assure everyone that I will not rest my pen while millions cry for sympathy but merit the least of attention.
As a P1.5 trillion national budget is passed, more than 21 million poor Filipinos experienced hunger in the season of plenty. I had always believed that Christmas brought out the generosity in people who call themselves Christians. Especially after the outpouring of support for Typhoon Ondoy victims, I thought that the spirit of generosity would carry out to Christmas. I forgot how there was no room in the inn for a poor and weary couple, and how Jesus had to be born in a manger.
What made me think, then, that a political exercise offering the most juicy positions in government would spend an iota of attention on the hunger of millions. I saw in one new survey that a major swing in voter preference was measured in Class E or the poorest of the poor of Filipinos. This Class went strongly for Villar who had not fed them, not housed them, but advertised in the most popular shows which included his giving a few houses as prizes.
Villar made great political capital of the fact that he came from the poor. Of course, that does not answer why his neighborhood remained poor while he became one of the richest Filipinos today. In one year of advertising conditioning the mind of Filipinos that he is pro-poor by being born poor, the hungry and the rest of Class E have pinned their hopes on him over his rivals. Of course, it helps that his opponents lacked the will to attack an impression which may be more hollow than true, or lacked the resources to do so.
But why should the poorest of the poor question the authenticity of a contrived imagery of a pro-poor candidate when other candidates did not even attempt to tell them a sweet lie? Noynoy is accepted as an honest person, but the poor do not know how honesty gets to feed them, or earn them a house in a television show. The poor do not know that there’s more than 5 million families of them, and they do not know how they are affected in the stomach by the corruption of their highest public officials.
When one has nothing, the promise of a crumb is worth more than silence or neglect. It should mean much when an honest candidate who will not take advantage of the weakness and ignorance promises to confront the corruption that enslaves the poor and causes their hunger. When the stomach is empty, even just the smell of food can be so enticing versus the blank stare of an uncaring crowd. Who has told them that the corruption in all branches in government is the main culprit of their hunger?
International agencies which include the World Bank have estimated that one third of the national budget is lost to corruption. That means P500 billion is stolen in a P1.5 trillion budget. Who makes the budget and allocate to themselves their pork barrel funds but congressmen and senators who are in the majority party? Who have been the Speakers of the House and Senate Presidents who scrutinized and approved the budgets, and who retained the power to have oversight powers over the rightful spending of the Executive Branch?
The poor have to know that their hunger remains unresolved due to the collective apathy of our public officials who choose to pay more attention to re-naming of streets or buying rights of way. But more than that, the poor must know that they as well as the rich, are victims of thieves in government. The poor pay VAT their meager funds to buy anything. At least 10 percent of what the poor pay as indirect taxes become part of the national budget, and one third of that is stolen.
For a family of six who spend at least P10,000 to survive monthly, they end up contributing P36,000 in three years. If one third of that is stolen by public officials, then the poor lost P12,000. A dirty politician then comes to buy their sentiments or votes by using part of what was stolen while pocketing the rest. A poor family feels lucky that they were given P1,000 by a political candidate when this is only a fraction of the P12,000 stolen from them.
If we are not Christian enough for the hungry to feed them, if the Church does not feel obligated to run after government with hammer and tongs for the poor who go hungry because of corruption, if we are not Filipino enough to teach the poor that they are robbed just like us though they have much less, then the poor will be better off with those who promise them an empty dream.
We who know what is going on but do nothing have become even more evil than the evil we tolerate, and cowardly besides. ***
