“We should dream, shouldn’t we?”
I keep repeating in this space that unless we decide to revise the present Constitution and revert to a two-party presidential form of government, we will always suffer the least among us leading us, whether in the presidency, Congress, even our local government units.
But among the crop of senatorial candidates who filed their certificates of candidacy before the Comelec, one stands out, even if she is yet to be listed in the surveys which have replaced the function of political parties in choosing candidates for higher office, but because she is among the four or five most qualified to be in the Senate.
I refer to Heidi Mendoza, former commissioner of the Commission on Audit, recognized by even the United Nations as an expert in the realm of government auditing.
Appointed to the COA by President Benigno S. Aquino III together with Grace Pulido Tan, Heidi Mendoza was a paragon of integrity, using eagle eyes to spot the truly violative of our corruption laws, without taking short-cuts like releasing to publicity-hungry legislators the tentative audit reviews of resident auditors which respondent officials have yet to explain and justify to the commission itself.
In fine, Heidi knows the rules and the procedures, and sticks to those rules. And unlike those who preceded them, their commission has not had even the slightest rumor of being on the take, or being pressured and used by high leaders of the land for political ends.
In previous columns and along with other purveyors of opinion in other media outlets, I have rued the lack of competence and character of those who seek public approbation to become duly elected leaders of the land.
Some are members of family dynasties with no other qualification than a well-known surname. Some are “laos” or “mala-laos” members of the entertainment industry with neither diploma nor experience in management of anything. Yet they have been endorsed by otherwise big political parties and supposedly respectable personalities as being fit to become senators of the realm.
And because this sad reality is repeated every election cycle except when we had a two-party system where duly-entitled members winnow the grains from the chaff through conventions, we have had to endure a Senate of clowns, grandstanding loudmouths, and even a few who never open their mouths because there is hardly anything in their brains to feed their vocal chords.
Yet we pay these 24 republics hefty salaries and allowances which amount to around a million per month, plus pork barrel entitlements which, according to Ping Lacson who in his previous terms refused these, now amount to a minimum of 2 billion Philippine pesos per year, more for the “favored” who get as much as 5 billion in pork each year.
We have elected some 67 contractors to become our representatives in the House, this number according to a congressman who was once a police general and lawyer as well. Since they kept greasing the palms of lawmakers and other dynastic officials per contract, more in fact than their profits, they have wised up and decided to be legislators. Now one of them has become the second most powerful member of the HoR.
Imagine the sea change if we had a Heidi Mendoza and a Ping Lacson working together in the Senate to expose in detail the magnitude of these pork barrel entitlements? Imagine if the two collaborated in exposing graft and corruption in the agencies of government and state corporations?
Imagine further if the two worked hand in hand to cut the wasteful expenditures in the budget so that we will not sink further into debt?
The daily government expenditure is P15.8 billion while only P11.7 billion is generated from taxes and other revenues. This leaves a gaping deficit of P4.1 billion, which is financed by borrowing more and more.
That would amount to 1.5 trillion a year, and at that rate, interest charges not included, we will have a total national indebtedness of P21 trillion to P22 trillion by the time this administration bows out in 2028!
Heidi is probably realistic enough to know that the odds against her election to the once-august body are slim, but she has chosen to at least add a “stone in the edifice” of educating our voters in the campaign, despite a paucity of resources, one who would speak the truth while others would shirk from it because it would work against their electoral chances.
“Suntok sa buwan” is how we might characterize her impossible dream.
But we should dream, shouldn’t we?
