“Our politicians think that 2028, which is their ticket to hallelujah forever and ever, is all about stealing taxpayer money”
It is the fixation over 2028 that has brought us into this sordid state of the nation.
A web of mind-boggling corruption has wrought so much havoc upon the future of our next generations who will inherit a crippling public debt, even as their quality of life suffers each day from poor governance and the high costs of surviving.
2028 must belong to the present family, not to the Inday Sara Duterte they duped into joining them in 2022 to achieve electoral victory.
Having reached the top, it became convenient to kick the ladder, so only the favored in the family will continue to reign.
Imelda thought similarly in 1981, when her husband falsely proclaimed the end of martial law, and in his re-inaugural after sham election, a choir sang Handel’s Messiah with its refrain “and he shall reign forever and ever.”
That was cut short in 1986, when colonels and those below mutinied and sparked a “people power” revolution that became the Western world’s darling for a brief shining moment, just as the “usual” — the traditional ways of politics took over.
Cory merely returned the forms of democracy — space without social and economic substance.
Trapos among Cory’s political brood “managed” the transition between revolutionary fervor and “normalcy,” which was nothing more than a return to the “good old days” prior to martial law.
In fairness, those old ways were at least marked by some level of decency, yet gradually increasing levels of corruption morphed thereafter.
Vote-buying which started in Caraga in the early sixties when filthy rich loggers were raping its forests soon became a nationwide practice, and electoral contests became a battle of whoever had a larger pile of money to win a congressional seat, a governorship, a city mayoralty.
Wily businessmen whose operations required regulatory capture to earn oodles of profits cashed in, first by “donating” to the campaign kitty of trapos and, later, “owning” political parties themselves in a stupid system authored by well-meaning but largely short-sighted men and women via the 1987 Constitution where multiple flags of convenience including sham party-lists joined the gravy train.
The Villars bought the Nacionalista Party from the Laurels. Danding Cojuangco formed the Nationalist People’s Coalition as vehicle for his failed presidential bid, then continued to nurture it to protect business interests.
Enrique Razon joined the fray through his National Unity Party after the fall of Erap in 2001. FVR’s 1992 vehicle, a contraption formed between his Lakas Tao and the NUCD, survived through the years depending on who was in power, or who funded its existence.
Political parties reigned, and then slumbered, depending on who sat in Malacanang. Politicians from senator to congressmen to LGU officials changed parties as often as they switched from barong to tailored suits.
Party-listed banners intended for the “marginalized” groups were sold to dynasts and contractors, while many more were accredited by a corrupt Comelec following a Supreme Court decision penned by a magistrate who now claims to be shocked by the depths of depravity that our politics has sunk into.
Because all politics has been fueled by, and elections won through tons of money, corruption became “normal,” and a desensitized public began to slowly resign themselves to the “norm.”
And so, when the First Family won the jackpot in 2022 by forging a “UniTeam” with the unsuspecting mayora from Davao who was not on speaking terms with her president-father, along with promises to return to the “good old days” and chimera of fool’s gold, they vowed never to part with the jackpot.
Since money had become the be-all and end-all of Philippine politics, they believe that 2028 would be a function of who had the biggest pile.
OPM has a new meaning: it has become “other people’s money.” But since banks could not be relied upon to protect accounts from scrutiny, the greedy bought large vaults, later condominiums, even houses, onto which personal depositories the billions they manufactured from the GAA were stashed.
Wonder why the Bangko Sentral changed paper banknotes to polymer, and keeps spending billions in over-printing our money supply?
Because polymer is “anay-proof.”
Our politicians think that 2028, which is their ticket to hallelujah forever and ever, is all about stealing taxpayer money. It’s all about buying their way to unlimited power.
Until they made a series of mistakes of abuse and over-reach.
Until God rained his fury through torrents of rain and floods of misery outraged the people.
Moral from this hideous story of our miserable lives:
“God sees the truth, but waits” (Tolstoy).
