This year was a “very disappointing year” primarily because of the harsh socio-economic realities of the Filipino people, according to retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz.
Poverty has become the new normal, Cruz said, urging photographers to visit certain areas in North Harbor and other impoverished areas to see how the people’s reality.
“Almost all food commodities in the market are imported, if not smuggled,” Cruz, a former president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines and now Archbishop Emeritus of Lingayen-Dagupan
He described outgoing President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III as “one who’s against the people, against population but at the same time uses people in the person of overseas Filipino workers whose remittances [keep] the country’s economy afloat.”
Cruz said there is no truth to President Aquino’s claims that the Filipino people are his “bosses” because in truth and in fact, his close collaborators, those handling public funds and appropriate them for their own benefit, are the ones “who have Mr. Aquino’s ear.”
The slogan “daang matuwid is anything but matuwid”, he insists.
“Where’s the newly-enacted General Appropriations Act of 2016 coming from?” the prelate asked. He said most of the budget comes from direct and indirect taxes levied on rich and poor Filipinos.
“A significant portion of it would come from foreign borrowing,” Cruz further said. He added he fears the coming budget would be mishandled by government executives as in previous years.
He specifically mentions the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Conditional Cash Transfer where he believes beneficiaries are being shortchanged by some government officials.
In connection to this, Cruz expressed fears the upcoming May 2016 elections will not be free because “when people are poor, they are not free.” He said with a government budget of over Php 3 trillion, it would be easy to buy and sell votes.
The 81-year-old prelate said he believes the incoming administration equipped even with “a little intelligence, could do a lot for the people.”
The retired Lingayen-Dagupan archbishop said the country has transformed itself into a country of illegal drug manufacturing, women and children up for sale through the Internet and killings which occur regularly, among other concerns.
He also criticized the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Conditional Cash Transfer, which is led by Secretary Corazon Soliman, which he said is being used to shortchange the Filipino people.
Cruz expressed fear that the recently passed P3-trillion budget may be misused or mishandled by the Aquino administration for election purposes.
Cruz also feared that the outgoing government may use this huge money to buy and sell votes to secure the victory of the administration’s standard bearer Manuel Roxas II who is still lagging behind the opinion polls.
He then reminded the Aquino administration that the General Appropriations Act of 2016 is from the sweat and blood of the tax payers, the rich, the middle class and even the poor.
“A significant portion of it would come from foreign borrowing,” Cruz further said, fearing that the P3-trillion 2016 budget may be mishandled by the Aquino administration compared to the 2015.