Thursday, September 13, 2007 Talk back: Senate TV By Rex Comendador Balamban, Cebu
YOUR editorial in the Sept. 5 issue entitled “Barriers to Economic Growth” was very relevant and sober. Being an offshoot of a report by the World Bank on the status of Apec member-countries, government corruption and excessive bureaucratic “red tape” are indeed very stifling.
Our family, for one, is planning to put up a business in Leyte and intended to take out a loan from a government bank. However, we were presented a distasteful mountain of paperwork and complicated procedures that we decided to think twice. Pity the foreign investors who encounter the same alien system!
Indeed there is much that the government can do to rid ourselves of this self-destructive system. Yet what do we see the senators doing? They strut in front of the TV cameras, make grandiose (and hypocritical) speeches, and parade their tailor-made suits. Worst of all, they use up the people’s money in their petty bickering, mudslinging, intrigues and vicious vendettas. They are no better than certain people who resort to noise, gossip and scandal to cover up their own bankrupt characters. In the meantime, the really important issues are unattended.
The best thing that can happen at this point is for the useless Senate to be abolished, its budget transferred to the line agencies who are burdened with the implementation of the Senate’s many past laws but are pathetically ill-equipped to accomplish them. It seems that we already have enough laws that’s why the Senate is now merely indulging in a ridiculous “Reality TV” show of their own.
