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Thursday, September 23, 2004
Sienes: Fiscal crisis is also a moral crisis
By Cris G. Sienes
Different Strokes
IN RPN's TV program "Sharing in the City" aired early last Saturday morning, September 11, a Catholic priest (or was it a bishop?) said that the fiscal crisis, which the country faces, is also a moral crisis. We agreed with him one hundred percent.
Take one of the causes of our fiscal crisis--rampant tax evasion and, if we may be allowed to add, rampant pilfering of collected taxes by grafters. The government loses billions yearly through tax evasion and loses billions more of collected taxes through graft and corruption.
Tax evaders refuse to pay the correct taxes, or do not pay taxes at all, because they think only of themselves and their families. They do not think in terms of the many benefits that their taxes can give to the country and people.
Many people in the government also pilfer collected taxes and stuff them into their esurient pockets because they think only of the many creature comforts and the pleasures that the taxes that they pilfered can buy for them and for their families. They ignore the fact that because of the taxes that they steal, our people are deprived of basic infrastructures and services.
Another cause of our fiscal crisis is the seemingly unbridled passion of our national leaders for borrowing money. This has brought the national debt to a whopping P5.4 trillion, so much so that a large chunk of the annual budget of the government goes to debt servicing and not to the needs of the country and people.
Why do our national leaders keep on borrowing money? Where did the money that they borrowed go? Had the money been spent wisely and for what they were intended for? The answer is probably a big no. For why keep on borrowing money?
And why do government-owned and controlled corporations, which had been earning millions before also borrow money? Where did all the millions that they earned go? Isn't it safe to say that our government-owned and controlled corporations have been grossly mismanaged, if not looted through bad investments and huge borrowings by some VIPs in the government?
Relative to the unchecked borrowings of government leaders and government-owned and controlled corporations, it is well that Sen. Manny Villar and his committee in the Senate are now asking for an auditing of all the money borrowed. It's about time that they did this. People share in the onerous burden of paying the national debt. So it is only fitting and proper that they be told of where all the borrowed money went. In case large chunks of the money were pilfered, let those who were responsible pay. This will at least make the burden of paying the national debt lighter.
Weak fiscal management is another cause of our fiscal crisis. Weak fiscal management can only be the end product of a genuine lack of concern for the welfare of the country and people. Hence, the wasteful spending, the staggering losses being suffered by the government, as government people tasked with managing the country's finances play ducks and drakes with the people's money.
All the above causes of our fiscal crisis clearly show a dearth of morality among many people in the government. Hence, it is so right to say that our fiscal crisis is also a moral crisis. So the country faces not only a fiscal crisis but also a moral crisis, which is even worse. It means that many people in the government have discarded their moral values. In the blind pursuit of materialism and hedonism, they have forgotten the age-old truths preached by Christ Himself. And this is the reason why honesty is a disappearing virtue in the government service. As we already mentioned here before, honesty in the government is best described by two lines from a popular song of the same title: "Honesty is such a lonely word, everyone is so untrue." Take it from us.
We've just retired from the government service. Clearly there is a need for a spiritual renewal to re-instill the moral values that many government people have lost. The Ramos administration started a moral recovery program, which was a very timely one. Locally it was spearheaded by the Office of the President for Mindanao, where we were detailed for several years.
Unfortunately, the program was not pursued by the Estrada administration and the three-year interim Arroyo administration. It was only recently, when the fiscal crisis hit the country, the President called for moral renewal.
We believe, though, that the call might be a mite late for the incorrigibles who've stayed long in the government. Bad habits are hard to break. When a tree is young, it is easy to bend its branches, but when the tree is already very old, its branches break if you bend them. The thing left to do is to break the incorrigibles in the government service, or send them to jail.
Any spiritual or moral renewal should start with the young, who are the future leaders of the country. Their minds are pliable and are susceptible to change. Unless we guide and start our young well on the paths of virtue, the country will cease to be the only Christian nation in the Far East. It will become the Sodom and Gomorrah of Asia.
(September 23, 2004 issue)
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