P10B WORTH OF PORK

Lately each morning when I get to the breakfast table and open the papers, my day is ruined.

For the past weeks, there has been this continuing telenovela of yet another tale of shameless graft and corruption in a country promising its resurrection by tireless and revolutionary reforms.

The sudden disappearance of the Queen of the Pork People after a warrant of arrest has been issued by the Department of Justice was only the start of my chronic dyspepsia.  

The week before that, the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) has come out with a series of shocking revelations about just how much was carted away from the national coffers to land straight into the gaping purses of certain resourceful individuals that include legislators and scam bunnies like this Invisible Woman.

Then came that "invitational round table interview" of our heroine with the Inquirer editors which shall hold a record of being one of the most incoherent, absurd bordering on the surreal encounters of humans among each other.  An effort to complete a sentence has become a feat.  An even greater effort is to make sense out of statements --- as the woman in questions mumbled, grumbled and eventually stumbled her way in various fabrications hoping to approximate truth.

But wait ... there's more.

Worse than those mind-boggling experiences with media, revelations about the ostentatious lifestyle of the unexplained rich and cheesy infamous rattled all Filipino netizens or anyone who has access to YouTube. 

Images of a lavish birthday party in L.A. hosted by the youngest offspring of said Magic Lady were meant to be awesome, showing how the spoiled rich and privileged spend their money to mark monumental moments of their perfumed lives. The video only complemented Instagram images posted by the same West Coast junior socialite showing her rubbing elbows with high profile Hollywood personalities and exhibiting her collection of designer handbags and shoes.

The video and the web photos all seem to point to some Paris Hilton Wannabe --- complete with that breathless sort of excitement one usually associates with early stages of asphyxia or just typical behavior of airheads.  Whatever.  But regardless of one thinks or feels, the more fashionable among us will admit that the clothes fit good --- and the food looks great.

"Well, if you have it ... then flaunt it."  

That must have been the justification for all that.  After all, it IS the age of the selfie in which you take pictures, spread the image through the net to announce to the world what kind of sushi or dessert you are having right that very moment. If you've got what it takes, then show it ... At mamatay kayong lahat sa inggit kung hindi nyo ito ma-take.

But then again such exhibitions of orchestrated vanity are not justified at all when the money allegedly used for buying the bubblies, the hors d'ouvres, the entire runway set-up for the party and even that tacky photo booth where all her blonde and blue-eyed American friends can go glamorously goofy were paid for by the taxes of the natives back home.

Let's get real here and put penis-envy aside.  There is nothing wrong wearing your Leboutins, Jimmy Choos or sporting all your Stella McCartneys, Herve Legers or Narciso Rodriguezes if what pays for your credit card bills was not extracted from the withholding tax of some humble employee who has to brave the long lines to get into the MRT and invest even greater courage cramped into the tiny space of a train coach overflowing with daily commuters just to get a salary of less than P9000 a month.  

It is OK to stuff your mouth with delicious sushi filled with luscious salmon roe if what pays for your food was not filched from the VAT incorporated in the purchase of goods from a grocery that a minimum wage earner must pay for to feed his family on a daily budget basis.

This is the cause of the present indignation.

People pay taxes to finance government projects so that we have better roads, build a better educational system, develop a credible and effective health care program.  Thirty-three per cent (that is clearly one third) of an employee's salary is not deducted from his take home pay in order to finance a birthday party in some fancy hotel on the other side of the Pacific.  It is not only very wrong --- it is repulsive.

More than the lavish acquisitions of both real estate properties as well as all forms of assets by the family of the alleged mastermind, it is the sudden realization that nothing has changed. It is this frustration mixed with disillusionment --- because each and every time there is new leadership, you keep hoping that the country's history will be shaped by far more than rah-rah-rah speeches or great rhetoric.

You wish there would indeed be leadership that is selfless because it ruled by dedication, principle and conviction --- and not shaped by media frenzy or a marvel of personality marketing. After a while you get an overload of promises that end up as nothing but nicely constructed syllables meant to make sense and boost the morale.

At the end of the day, you find out that the country hasn't budged an inch. That is because for every step forward, you take three backwards. It is like dancing very bad cha-cha.

Yes, there are sincere efforts to clean the system: that much we appreciate.  There are those who cast doubts stating that everything is tinted by politics, politicking and partisanship but it has reached that point that anything that can lead to positive change (both in the short and long terms) is good as good can get.  

So we are in this phase of purging, of national cleansing --- sorting out the weeds from the blooms and making sure there is enough room in the ground for good things to flourish.  There are all the reports about crime busting, castigating the corrupt --- and exposing those who undermine the stability of the republic.

Despite doubts of some, you cling onto to hope, assuring yourself that things will be better because those in charge are capable of greater moral fortitude.  

And then we get this.

And then we are told that both senators and congressmen have actually usurped the money (knowingly ... or worse, unwittingly)  allocated for their PDAF (Priority Development Aid Fund) to non-existent NGOs. We are told that there is a modus operandi that exists between the offices of the lawmakers and the minions of the Pork Lady.  We are also informed that this has been going on for years. Systematically operational ... for years, my God!

Millions of pesos have been siphoned from the national piggy bank so that some girl can drive her Porsche and keep her lifestyle in an apartment at the Ritz-Carlton.  Millions may or may not have been pocketed by the very people who we elected to guide us through the most turbulent and trying times and to focus on what are the prospects available to glorious nationhood.

This infuriates a whole lot of us ... no, it is tantamount to rage because we feel so cheated that what we yield as our taxes was used to sustain lavish lifestyles that even we cannot dream of remotely achieving.

Actually, it is disgusting. And heartbreaking.

More than the P10B stolen from what should have been invested in nation building, giving aid to those devastated by national calamities or improve the quality and scope of our infrastructure, the greater pain comes from the realization that you do not know who to trust any more. 

Worse than that, you fear that you have lost your trust on the lawmakers whose names have been dragged into this scam.  Whether they are victims themselves of some grand design meant to discredit individuals or nip political ambitions, we cannot tell ... and for some, we couldn't care less.  What is so painful to realize at this moment is that you no longer know who to believe ... and if we so choose to invest our faith even in some, we no longer know how. Or even ask ourselves if we still should or could.

After the latest expose of the head of the Commission on Audit, more names of senators and congressmen from both sides of the color camps were dragged into this quagmire of shame and brazen theft.  If this were a ploy to castrate the Opposition in building their war chest for the Battle of 2016, then this is one of the most gross miscalculations in Philippine Political Strategies.  The revelations blew right on the faces of everybody ... and by that, we mean ... everybody.

A security guard (in all his simple wisdom) encapsulated the feeling most want to pinpoint but never had the guts to say: "Sir, umasa ka pa? Pare-pareho lang po sila."

Then one also begins to wonder: if the pork barrel were removed or abolished, how many would still aspire to be senators or congressmen? Every senator gets P200M a year allocation --- while every congressman gets P70M.  Take away that --- and would we have as many patriots yearning to serve the mamamayang Pilipino because they woke up one morning and realized that this was their real mission in life?

We cannot be all that cynical.  There are people out there who deserve the position of great responsibility to assume national leadership. But at the moment they do not stand the chance because they don't have the backing, the support, the manpower ... and more important, the money to do so. 

Just now I received a text message from my accountant quoting the exact amount I have to pay for my monthly VAT.  I looked at the text message and the price I have to pay next week ...and realized that something already died in me.  It is not only about the amount I have to pay ... it is the feeling of helplessness that goes with the payment.

And I do not want to be helpless any more.