I read the Philippine STAR editorial last Tuesday entitled “Voice of the People” and let me reprint the first part “The people are mad as hell, and the anger was expressed yesterday in Manila’s Rizal Park. Faced with the brazen misuse of public funds, people want the pork barrel abolished — not just the one for Congress but also for the Office of the President. As the “Million People March” unfolded, Malacañang remained firm: President Aquino would keep his “pork” or discretionary funds, and would continue the reforms he announced last Friday to bring transparency and accountability to the system.” Herein lies the problem… as we’ve said many times before; President Aquino is as much a part of the problem here as he also is part of the solution. What I liked in that STAR editorial was the last sentence, which declared, “After hearing the voice of the people yesterday, Congress and Malacañang cannot afford to return to business as usual.” This editorial message was clearly taken from the spirit of the people who protested at the Rizal Park last Monday and if P-Noy won’t listen, those protesters won’t be silenced. Meanwhile, it is high time for the Filipino people to wake up to the reality of the times. Remember that old adage “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.” Now if only President Aquino had the political will to remove all forms of pork and make it extinct… he will truly earn the name as the nation’s greatest political reformer. But P-Noy doesn’t even want to remove his own pork…nor does he even want to call for Charter changes, so what reforms are headed our way under his Presidency? Nothing! Meanwhile let’s analyze what would happen if the Filipino people got their wish… and the pork barrel is finally removed. For sure it would spell doom to political dynasties. The pork barrel is the single most important motivation for political people and their families to run for public office because whatever they spend during the elections, they can recoup that “investment” through their pork barrel. This is why incumbent elective officials are difficult to unseat when the challenger has no money to spend. If P-Noy is holding fast to his pork barrel, it is only because he is thinking of his own political survival. When the President can no longer use his pork barrel (or cause the pork barrel to be released via the DBM) he automatically loses control of the Legislative branch of Government and you know what that means, those political butterflies will be flying to other potential presidentiables who has tons of money. But isn’t that exactly what the framers of democracy wanted to do… have all the three branches of the government co-equal and independent of each other so there will be checks and balances by each other. Sadly under President Aquino… he has effectively put in his pockets all three co-equal branches of the government. So what we have in the Philippines today is something less than a democracy. It may not be a dictatorship but it certainly isn’t a real working democracy that submits to democratic principles. Opinion ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Today almost all Tom, Dick and pundits have already predicted that without the power of the pork barrel, P-Noy will automatically become a ‘lame duck” President. Political patronage would be minimized. It will also change the political landscape of the 2016 Presidential elections. So I don’t think P-Noy wants to lose his political clout this early by removing his own pork barrel despite the clamor of the Filipino people. At this point, let me say it here that we should not be removing the pork barrel unless Congress also agrees to totally overhaul the Comelec. Why? Because without the pork barrel… there will be few politicians running for elective positions. This means it opens the door for ordinary Filipinos especially those real patriots to run for those positions and just make laws to help our people out of that vicious cycle of poverty. Now this is what is known as “inclusivity” when the rest of us lesser mortals can finally run for public office and it won’t cost us an arm and a leg. But unfortunately it just won’t work with the present system that we have in the Comelec because the system is just too centralized… and yes prone to corruption. As I’ve said many times before, the Comelec was caught cheating for the Marcos dictatorship, which led to the walkout by computer programmers during the 1986 elections and triggered the EDSA Revolt. But 27 years later, it is still the same corrupt Comelec system in place that was used by the political elite in the 2010 and 2013 elections. I dare say that the Comelec should be broken into regional, but a totally independent Comelec no longer under the control of the President but with five members from Civil Society, the Church, the Regional Development Council (RDC) chairman, the police or military and the judiciary. When there are questions on the elections results, the ballot boxes should be opened in front of the public and media in their locality with no cost to the political candidates. So are we really ready to reform the Comelec when the pork barrel is gone?
Posted on: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 12:04:26 +0000
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