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Monday, September 20, 2004
Speak out: Peso, peso, for who?
By JOSEPH M. DABON
Hermag Subd., Basak, Mandaue City
“Why should I break my back in toil when the fruits of my labor are used to extinguish an inextinguishable debt,” is a line from an oratorical piece of a schoolmate in Ateneo de Davao back in 1964. It was true then, more so now. God was kind to him by allowing him to win the national championship of the Voice of Democracy contest that year; kinder still by taking him home before seeing the prophetic implications of his piece—I learned later that he joined the underground when martial law was declared and subsequently liquidated by a military asset.
Today, we are in, what our leadership calls, a financial crisis; the entire country is wallowing in an inextinguishable debt. The problem is not so much debilitating in its magnitude than in its cause for being. For the country’s problems did not fall upon us all as we slept in the night but through a slow, yet constant erosion of our values and ideas leading the country to the precipice of a critical mass. Yet, even as we hurtle toward the unspeakable beyond, like a dog chasing its tail, we go round and round chasing that which we could never lay our hands on because it is simply not out there but “in” here.
A case in point is the current furor over the huge salaries of GOCC executives. In a performance worthy of a Famas Award, members of the congressional inquiry feigned surprise over the enormous perks these gentlemen are enjoying. What they missed, purposely or otherwise, is that it is not a matter of ”how much” a manager gets in salaries but “how much” he brings in profits. Focusing on the former is emotional food for the masses. Dwelling on the latter is an indictment of them all. In one way or the other, none is innocent in the pillage of the money these GOCCs are generating. Considering the monetary responsibilities of these guys, they deserve every centavo of their pay. Sadly, they serve not the interests of the country but of the political machinery that put them there. A successful businessman’s secret for success is to create a monopoly. GOCCs are virtual monopolies. Yet they lose money and yet, none is held accountable for his/her crimes.
An economist worth his salt would embrace tax increase like he would a plague—with extreme distaste and fear. He knows that a single upward movement in tax results, at the very least, a five-fold movement of prices in the lowest consumer level. Our economist of a president knows no other way out of our self-created financial crisis, that she abetted, but to increase taxes, churning out figures supporting her (il)logic. I bet, conveniently missing in her optimism is the unavoidable loss in revenues due to decreased consumption that comes with increased prices—as surely as sugar and spice.
The naďve among us, whipped up by the Mr. Hyde in our lawmakers, are suggesting a “bayanihan” fund to help the country out of her dire straits. A sign of patriotism, they say. Nothing can be as foolhardy in a society where a laborer, already scant in his resources, give not much thought in plunking P5 into a videoke for a song, as a congressman spending thousands of pesos for the services of a female escort. It is outright tomfoolery to put ourselves in the league of Ninoy Aquino, Jose Rizal, Mabini and their ilk for a peso or so. Especially if all it does is to provide more fodder for our rapacious gentlemen in the bureaucracy. A peso for the village idiot is more patriotic and indulgent than to keep afloat a government with a death wish.
What do you do if a ship springs a leak? Plug the leak, of course! The country is having a deluge of a leak. She needs to be plugged real fast. Sadly, what the Filipinos have seen so far are feeble attempts, by those who caused the leak, to bail out water. Poor country, poor us!
(September 20, 2004 issue)
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