HAD the president vetoed the security of tenure bill ahead of Sona, the discourse would have been the blandest show in the national television that Juan de la Cruz has to witness. The Filipinos were expecting the fruition of coated words during the rendezvous of presidential campaign three years ago.
There were only three things in extreme importance to majority of the Filipinos who glued their eyes on television the whole afternoon of July 22. First, the pronouncement to end contractualization which is long overdue to the laborers; second, the president’s supposedly educative presentation on why he allowed Chinese fishermen in wanton destruction to exploit our resources in West Philippines Sea; and third, the announcement of the President to re-open Kapa, a religious organization that is irrefutably pro-poor.
Kapa whose noble objective has truly worked for the poor in the past three years was ordered closed being illegal. Lotto and STL on the other hand are legal gambling schemes in which a bigger chunk of the proceeds helped the government programs and the modal to pay their hospital bills and medicines. Both beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries, patronized and amused in gaming STL after a long day of work with a persistent hope that one day the never-ending dine of noodles will improve into a definitive meal like the political leaders are enjoying.
The labor sector was not only affronted of the veto but was truly injured when thousands of the lotto booth tellers became instantly jobless with the president’s abrupt order to close all legal gambling schemes under the PCSO. PCSO was established under Republic Act 1169, and the president being a lawyer is very much aware that a law can only be superseded by creating another law and not by mere breathe of the head running the state; unless of course when the country is under the military rule.
Is the president a lollipop grabber? Or a despotic leader whose pleasure is to bully the destitute? I don’t think so though his dogma is debatable.
Corruption in PCSO was the single factor for shutting down. With the implementation of the train law, PCSO is among the identified sources to fund the ambitious Build, Build, Build project. The closure however cannot interrupt the government program because there is adequate fund for the projects according to the gauche assertion of presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo. I am not sure if Panelo is aware of the country’s domestic and external loan amounting to P7.9 trillion as of May 2019 based on the records of the Bureau of Treasury.
The charity office is not among the most corrupt government agencies mentioned during the SONA but became the first victim of obtuse pronouncements. What about the corruption in Philhealth? Isn’t it worth closing for kiting the ghosts to claim the hard earned money entrusted to the government reserve for health? We expect more government agencies will be padlocked in the next few days, especially to those mentioned, without considering how many are losing jobs for this rapid succession of anti-poor policies.
Closing down of government agencies to get rid of corruption within, is an idiotic mentality like burning the whole house just to kill a rat. (abrigodann@gmail.com)