The quest
for happiness is what motivates a man to act; and there are many sources of
happiness. Some of them are sensual, grossly material, subtle, and spiritual. For
a typical politician, happiness is power; and money is one potent source of
power. For most of them, money is the end and the means.
The pork
barrel according to a friend is not bad; bad are those who use it badly he’d
say. Was the truism therefore that money is neutral applicable in this pork
issue? I am convinced that it is not. And my primary reason is simple; and it
is in tune with the sentiment of the people of the land: Lawmakers are makers of law not scam.
The Lawmakers,
as the term implies, supposedly, are the people who make the regulations, the
commandments, the principles, the decrees, the laws of the land. What a great
task for such kind of persons, what a burden, what a responsibility. Hail to
the lawmakers! They should be commended, respected, admired, applauded, and
revered. Unfortunately, in our present situation, our lawmakers are being
ridiculed, insulted, condemned, and disgraced in many ways; and if we really
look at it objectively, was actually a very sad thing. But in the past, the populace had been very
tolerant, forbearing, forgiving to all the abuses of the political sector. Clearly,
everything has an end; and its payback time. Their silence and their refusal to
react is a sign that they are most probably guilty; and they deserved to be
abused, at least in words and in writings. For they are not actually lawmakers
who deserves such a commendable respect, they are nothing other than
politicians of an already rotten political system.
The huge
amount in the Pork-Barrel (tens to hundreds millions of pesos) could be an
Irresistible temptation even for a saint; are we to believe that the so-called lawmakers
are even close to having the piety of a priest to resist such kind of
temptation.
During
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s reign as Philippine President, The Catholic Church was
seemingly reluctant to criticize her administration for wrongdoings despite the
clamor of the populace that it was a corrupt government. The annoying silence
of the usually critical Church puzzled the nation. Only later, after Mrs.
Arroyo stepped out of The Palace, the “Pajero Controversy” came out, and it somehow
revealed the reason of that confusing silence. Some members of the CBCP (Catholic
Bishop Conference of the Philippines) were accepting gifts or donations from
Arroyo administration, and some of which are cars like Pajero. The favors understandably
compelled them not to speak anything against the what was perceived by then was
a very corrupt government.
And let me
mention that almost every year in that era, Impeachment cases were filed in
the Lower House against the former President, who is in jail right now,
but none of which had prospered. What use to be an assumption is now a fact:
The Pork had obviously corrupted the souls of the lawmakers; that is why, despite
the obvious wickedness around, the degraded legislator had heard no evil, had
spoken no evil, had seen no evil, and had done nothing to protect the citizenry
from a visibly an abusive regime.
The Bishops
or the priests involved in the scandal, whether they would admit or not, clearly,
were silenced if not corrupted by the so-called gifts that amounted only for
around one or two millions of pesos for each one of them, which compared to the
shameless politician-lawmaker’s cut on Pork-Barrel, is very small. Having
come into this analysis, what is the right amount that can turn a lawmaker
into a pig? They are the rich and the powerful. The Filipino people branded and
scorned them with many names: kapalmuks (thick-face), buwaya (crocodile), baboy
(pig), buwaboy (pig-crocodile), senatong (corrupt-senator), tonggressman
(corrupt-congressman), etc... For them, they are people with extreme insatiable
lust; the ones that devours the flesh and blood of the poor and of the nation.
The ones that clearly could not even moderate their greed but still want us to
believe that they are strong and pious enough to resist the temptation and
evil of The Barrel of Pork. Unfortunately for these legislators, this time,
we had enough, we are not born yesterday, we are not marines, and we are not
fools who will believe that their bellies are bellies of saints.
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