IT IS selfless to give more than one receives. Volunteering, therefore, to work for little or no compensation is noble. Nobler still if one is self-sacrificing enough to spend more than the legal compensation for the job one is volunteering for. This is admirable and moves the nation forward. SOCE’s (statement of campaign expenses) show that senatorial candidates spent many times more than their expected legal salaries in campaigning for voters’ approval of their volunteer work in the Senate. Like loser Mar Roxas spent P179 million for a job that per salary standardization law will only give him, if he had won, a monthly salary of P295,191 or P3,542,292 annually.
Moreover, it is safe to presume that for lower elected positions in government, candidates spent more than their expected legal compensation to get people’s approval for them to volunteer to serve their constituencies as representatives, governors and mayors.
It is volunteer work, right? They want it. Nobody is obliging anybody to be senator, congressman, governor or mayor.
So how admirable is it that candidates spend so much to volunteer to serve Filipinos as public officials? It is even more admirable when you factor in their humility and shyness to declare the actual much larger amount of their campaign expenses, sort of saying they would’ve spent more if not for the legal limits to campaign spending. Really now!
Yet, for a country with so many generous individuals willing to spend so much just to be able to serve, we are not at all moving forward in any way approaching dramatic. What is wrong?
If you look again at their SOCEs (Statement of Contributions and Expenditures) you will notice that many really spend a considerably smaller amount of their own personal money than of donations from supporters. These, of course, can only be the rich who have business and other interests to protect. The poor cannot possibly donate. If so, then two things possibly or most probably happen. One, the winners recover their small personal investment from the salaries and allowances and so many other hidden compensations of their position. Two, their rich supporters get a return on their donations in the form of special favors from beneficiaries who are now in power.
This tale-of-irony’s final chapter has a winner-take-all theme. The electorate has been paid hence winners need not serve them as promised. Instead they prioritize serving their donors with favors that would enable both of them to recover their huge investment... and much more if they decide, as many do, to steal from the people.
How sad, how ironic that the otherwise admirable generous high-spending by volunteers for official positions of service should result in the continuing poverty of millions of Filipinos!