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Friday, March 29, 2024

Marcos pa rin?

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It’s been 30 years since the Edsa People Power revolution but the condition of majority of Filipinos has gone from bad to worse. Edsa today has become synonymous with infernal traffic, no thanks to the inaction from this government that finds it more convenient—and definitely much easier—to blame its predecessor/s for all the things that people suffer today.

During the 30th anniversary rites, President BS Aquino merely did a repeat of an old tired refrain that people have been hearing in these six years of his reign. But isn’t it about time to face the reality as well that three decades since then, poverty has become even worse, with the agriculture sector still in the doldrums, criminality still high and smuggling—particularly of agriculture products—now more rampant than ever?

Don’t believe us? Then believe the latest UN statistics that says the value of smuggled agri items spiked during the term of President BS by almost P200 billion in the first four years of this administration. According to the report, among the most smuggled goods include rice, pork, sugar, chicken, onion, and garlic—all key products—resulting in more poverty for the farmers and those engaged in the industry. This smuggling has become a “pestilence,” in the words of Sinag chairman Rosendo So.

Sinag, or Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura—has accused the government of “killing the farmers, local producers and growers,” blasting it for its “lack of heart and compassion.” We can bet the easy answer of this administration would be, “Eh buhay pa naman kayo, di ba? [You’re still alive, right?]” 

Of course, National Food Authority administrator Renan Dalisay scoffed at the statistics by the UN, saying his agency had its own figures. A big ha-ha! On that one—why would the UN fudge its numbers, as Senator Cynthia Villar, chair of the Senate committee on food and agriculture, pointed out. Dalisay even bandied about his conversation with Customs commissioner Bert Lina who reportedly claimed that rice smuggling (compared to sugar and other products) has been much diminished. Really, now – but smuggling is still rampant, right? Nevertheless, where are the figures to refute the UN report?

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Senator Villar summed it up: NFA will deny the UN statistics “kasi government. They cannot accept the truth; they cannot accept the fact.”

Yellow apologists of course will harp on the gift of democracy, that we are better off today because we are free to express our opinions and why dissent is alive.  But how come today, 30 years after, the people seem more polarized than ever?

It’s all very well to look back at history past but if we remain fixated with the past—which seems to be what this administration is doing—we will never be able to move forward to that promise of a future imbued with peace, progress and prosperity. Those who want more of the same BS under this dispensation of course only have to choose the yellow candidate this May.

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