How desperate can our custom officials be to become millionaires, I cannot entirely fathom. How stupid they can get in their bid to corrupt public funds, I cannot entirely imagine.
Their latest stint was the breach of the UN world pact forged in 1950 wherein it was agreed upon that reading and cultural materials would be exempted from import duties. The Bureau of Customs (BOC) is now imposing fees on any shipments of imported books or other cultural materials. Indeed this is alarming and this may well account for the fact that the number of imported books out in the market are limited. And we can feel this deficit in the fact that popular books like the Twilight saga are so hard to obtain.
I applaud (sarcastic) the official or officials who conceived of this idea of imposing fees to imported books, he or she or they haven’t failed to identify a marketable oppurtunity and cash in on it. I pity the book retailers who have to pay exhorbitant fees – both legal and under the table – just to get their shipment of imported books released to them.
Of course such circumstances have its positive and negative effects, as all circumstances are. Stemming the tide of imported books in the market brings to attention local books and boosts the local publishing industry. However, there seems to be more negative consequences than positive ones. For one, this further encourages the proliferations of pirated book copies in the forms of e-books and printed e-books. Of course, I admit that I also have my own collection of e-books. But I still prefer collecting the hard copies of the books over their poorly-typed electronic versions.
Perhaps the most important downside is the fact that all this efforts at imposing fees on imported books for the sake of earning some additional personal dough, makes readers and would-be readers less enthusiastic to read printed literature. All this selfish attempt to increase personal wealth devoids the current and future generation the opputunity to enrich their minds and cultural experiences.
In an age wherein old-fashioned reading has to compete with cyber technology, what the BOC did is indeed an insult to the intellectual priviledges of the Filipino people.
How desperate can our custom officials be to become millionaires, I cannot entirely fathom. How stupid they can get in their bid to corrupt public funds, I cannot entirely imagine.
Their latest stint was the breach of the UN world pact forged in 1950 wherein it was agreed upon that reading and cultural materials would be exempted from import duties. The Bureau of Customs (BOC) is now imposing fees on any shipments of imported books or other cultural materials. Indeed this is alarming and this may well account for the fact that the number of imported books out in the market are limited. And we can feel this deficit in the fact that popular books like the Twilight saga are so hard to obtain.
I applaud (sarcastic) the official or officials who conceived of this idea of imposing fees to imported books, he or she or they haven’t failed to identify a marketable opportunity and cash in on it. I pity the book retailers who have to pay exorbitant fees – both legal and under the table – just to get their shipment of imported books released to them.
Of course such circumstances have its positive and negative effects, as all circumstances are. Stemming the tide of imported books in the market brings to attention local books and boosts the local publishing industry. However, there seems to be more negative consequences than positive ones. For one, this further encourages the proliferation of pirated book copies in the forms of e-books and printed e-books. Of course, I admit that I also have my own collection of e-books. But I still prefer collecting the hard copies of the books over their poorly-typed electronic versions.
Perhaps the most important downside is the fact that all this efforts at imposing fees on imported books for the sake of earning some additional personal dough, makes readers and would-be readers less enthusiastic to read printed literature. All this selfish attempts to increase personal wealth devoid the current and future generation the opportunity to enrich their minds and cultural experiences.
In an age wherein old-fashioned reading has to compete with cyber technology, what the BOC did is indeed an insult to the intellectual privileges of the Filipino people.
Sometimes I wonder if there is a nobler reason why I chose to work in Bicol despite having been educated in Manila. A lot of people who’ve learned I studied in UP would ask me why I went back to Bicol to work. Their faces are lined with disbelief at what they think is a waste of education and opportunities on my part.
I would usually answer this people the most basic reason why I left Manila – I am sick and tired of living there. I have no intentions of facing the Manila rush hour traffic, of cramming myself in the sardine-pack railways just to get to work or of subjecting myself to the daily air and noise pollution of the Metro. For me the laid-back life of the province – the apparent ease of travel and the pristine atmosphere – outweighs far more the several thousand pesos difference in salary of an urban and rural job. This is my initial and heard of answer.
Naga City Public Market (source: www.naga.gov.ph)
My unheard of answer is one which might be bordering into the mean side. Most people who feign indignation at my by-passing opportunities of a Manila job are people who had never experienced life in Manila. To them, success equates living and working in the nation’s capital. They think highly of those who have been to Manila – those who’ve studied and worked there. Yet they themselves have had no experience of the hardships and turmoils behind the apparent prestige. They have no idea what it entails to work and reside in Manila. They have no idea that in order to get to work in time, one has to wake up really early in order to be travelling two hours before the supposed shift starts – and that travel involves several transfers of modes of transportation, committed in an atmosphere of exagerrated noise and stiffling smog. Exagerrated? Manila yuppies living far from their workplaces would agree with me. Why not live near the workplace, you may ask. Compare the rate of living spaces near your work location, say Makati, and a little bit farther, say UP Diliman, and you’d rather risk the commute than let all your hard earned salary go to your landlady. But then we all have our own priorities.
So in short, I do not want to face any of those circumstances when I have a much more appealing alternative here in the province. My workplace, admittedly is two towns and a city away from where I live, and sometimes I do have to ride four modes of transportation just to get there but then I am not exposed to excessive noise and stiffling smog. And thanks to our shuttle, the transportation is made so much more easier. Also travelling to work amidst a highway bordered with rice fields makes the full splendor of the star-filled skies a treat to the eyes – something I know I would never be able to witness if I live and work in Manila.
Plaza Rizal
I’ve come to realize all this things way back when I made the seemingly abrupt decision to uproot my urban life in exchange for a rural one. Today, I came across an article that also brought to mind another reason I have considered, though not so seriously, as to why I decided to spend the first years of my yuppie life in Bicol.
That article is Ms. Carmen N. Pedrosa’s Sunday column in the Philippine Star (publised May 24, 2009) entitled Bicolanos ask: What now for greater autonomy? In it she confirmed what I’ve known since high school, that my hometown belongs to the poorest regions in the country. According to the article, 5M or more than 60% of the population barely manage a sustainable lifestyle. What I learned new though was the reason why.
I thought before that Bicol was poor because most of its work force goes out of the province and work in other more prestigious regions. Of course I cannot blame them because the work opportunities then in Bicol were really scarce. Economy was at a standstill and there seems to be no improvement or growth for any of the establishments in the area. Investors also seemed hard to get by. I believe I was already in middle elementary years when Jollibee opened and it was a long time after that before McDonalds opened. I’m 22 so you do the math when those fast food chains, which are said to be the indicators of development, came to Naga.
The First McDonald's in Naga
Yet Ms. Pedrosa’s article said that Bicol is indeed rich in resources, and by that standard alone, is a wealthy province. It afterall, powers the Luzon grid with electricity from the Tiwi and Bacon-Manito geothermal plants. Lamentable though is the fact that Bicolanos are charged some of the highest rates for electricity. Apparently the geothermal plants in Bicol feeds first the other parts of Luzon before servicing its local constituents and by that time, exorbitant rates are being charged already. Apparently, the public officials (here we go again) are not doing enough for the people they have vowed to serve.
Ms. Pedrosa and company went to Bicol to talk about Charter change to the constituents of Sorsogon. They were proposing the autonomy of Bicol. Based on what I understood, Bicol, under a changed constitution, can become an autonomous region, much like ARMM and CAR. Why the need for autonomy, I do not quite understand. Foreign to me still is the idea of federalism. I do know that federalism and autonomy somehow goes hand in hand but I am still at a lost how a federal region or state would indeed function. And again, the question of why? Yet amidst all this talk about federalism and autonomy, they realized that their group had to really hear out the sentiments of the people who were experiencing the poverty first-hand. The people who have more rights to demand what is it the region needs to alleviate poverty.
And I guess amidst all the replies they heard, the most poignat one came from the lady who prepared their food for them. This lady claimed that the best thing to do in the upcoming elections would be to boycott it, since she reasoned that why would she go through all the charade of elections when nothing really happens – we just go through the motions of the elections. We just change the faces in power but nothing really changes anywhere. I guess she has a point although admittedly I must say it is a bit flawed.
Indeed it is true that with the country’s history in bad politics and political reforms, the tendency to get jaded with elections and promise of national reformation is quite rampant. I mean we cannot really blame anyone but the officials who year in year out makes us hope in their empty promises. But then we must still realize that the capacity to change this nation still lies in our hands. If we would all stop believing that the country has a potencial to rise above its current state of despair, then in the end the losers will be just ourselves and our future generation. I say “our” so we could own this coming generation since they would consist our kids and grandkids.
As pathetic as the situation must be, we must still do our best to change it, in whatever ways we can. No matter if we sometimes doubt if the little things we do indeed has any impact to our country. These little things like simply following a NO LITTERING or NO PARKING sign, or crossing the street in the designated place, or waiting for a ride in the apportioned area – seemingly insignificant laws that everyone seems to be breaking without any penalty – if we do them even when no one seems to notice or we become the odd man out, would still carry a significant impact that may be at this point in time is still far fetched from the range of our consciousness.
I remember a favorite quote that runs like this:
When I was young I wanted to change the world.
As I grew older, I realized the world was too large to change so I decided to change my country.
When I got a little bit older, I realized it was hard to change my country so I decided to change my tow
When I grew older still, I realized I cannot change my town so I decided to change my family.
When I got older still I realized that I wasn’t able to change my family.
As I lay in my deathbed, I realized, if I had changed myself first, then I might have been able to change my family, then perhaps my town, then my country and eventually the world.
Bottomline is: change starts from within. If we want something to happen in our country, if we want the trapos to change their approach to public service, wouldn’t it be worhwhile if we examine our own backyard first? If we check our selves first and ascertain for sure that we are in no way similar to this trapos – albeit in a different plane and context.
So that before we poke at the speck in someone else’s eye, we first verify that there is no speck in our eye as well.
And by the way, I just want to mention that I am really proud of all the developments of Naga as a city, and Cam. Sur as a province. In the small time frame since the first Jollibee had been erected in the city of Naga up to the present time, Naga has become a top-rate city and Camarines Sur a favorite destination for tourists and investors a like. Kudos to ALL who made this possible – from the highest official to the humbles aide!
This was my reaction when I learned that Erap is seriously considering running for presidency in the 2010 elections. He even has the nerve to refer to the study made by several political experts that he wouldn’t be breaching any constitutional law by running for presidency in the year 2010.
His arguments for him being qualified to run are in fact valid since according to Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III the constitutional provision against reelection of a president applies only to a sitting or incumbent president – and since Erap is neither, then he has all the green signals to run in 2010. After all, he hasn’t finished his last presidency term and he seems to have unfinished plans for the country, right?
Yet this would only materialize if the opposition wouldn’t unite under one candidate. Erap stresses over the fact that the votes of the Filipino people would be divided over the various presidential hopefuls of the opposition. They are no other than Ping Lacson, Manny Villar, Mar Roxas, Loren Legarda, Chiz Escudero and Jejomar Binay. He is worried that the same 2004 scenario, wherein FPJ and Lacson, two oppositional candidates who fought over the presidential slot were both “cheated” of their respective votes. He maintains that cheating against the opposition would be easy if they will field a lot of presidentiable candidates in the upcoming elections.
Well, we still have July or August to find out for certain if Erap will indeed run for presidency.
***Source: The Philippine Star News Page4 May 24, 2009***
Erap’s headache over the numerous presidential aspirants of the oppositon brings to mind my opinions and views on the party system of the Philippines. The election scene of the country is obviously party-oriented and not reform oriented. I am no greaat fan of the US but I must admit that I admire their approach to democracy and elections – that is in the sense that they only have 2 parties – Democratic and Republican, the major difference being in the reforms and beliefs of the said parties. And when a voter votes, he or she considers not the politician per se but the party he is in and the reform or advocacy of that party he is part of.
In the Philippines, there is no control as to the number of parties participating in the elections. Every election year, we hear of parties being made with some fading into oblivion in the next election year. This has happened so many times that we have ceased to really concern ourselves with the party and instead managed to look at the candidate himself thus making our election process personality-based instead of reform-based. If we closely looked at the nature of these political parties, we would see that most of them have basically similar reforms albeit worded differently.
So why then are there numerous presidentiables who would simply establish their own parties if their previous party had the unfortunate slip in decision to make them the presidential bet? Does it not make us think that they are now merely running for their own personal gain and not for the reforms that they claim to be their motivations for serving the public?
I know that our country is unique and I do not have any intention of it being patterned entirely upon US election scenarios, much as I admire those scenarios. It’s just that I hope our public servants would stop and think for a while and would really be sincere in what they want to accomplish for the country. I believe it would serve the voters more if we would be able to wisely decide who to vote for, not on the merits of the candidates personality, but on the merits of the reform his party advocates.
Another thing, it is easier to vote or select when one only has two options than when one is given a multitude of choices, right?
What is public service? What does it mean to be a public servant? And what would qualify one to be in such a position?
Reading an article in today’s Sunday paper, one would think that a major qualification to be a public servant is to be rich. Or maybe to be rich is one of the benefits of being a public servant. Doesn’t that sound a bit askew to the concept of public service? Not that I am discriminating against fortune and public office. It’s just that today’s article was really an eye opener for me. I guess I’ve known that most public officials in the high throngs of bureaucracy are rich but I had no idea that they were this rich.
The article I’m referring to is Delon Porcalla’s front page entry about the number of millionaires in Congress featured in The Philippine’s Star Sunday Edition (May 24, 2009). He said that only 4 of the 238 House members are non-millionaires. Imagine! That means that some of the country’s richest citizens are in the House of Representatives. Now, I have nothing against them being rich. I know that for one to have the machineries to run in the elections, one needs the money – and a large amount at that – to do so.
Yet what I am wondering about is how some representatives get to increase their net worth by millions while they are on office. Like Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo (Pampanga), whose net worth of P96.7M in 2007 rose to P99.2M in 2008 – a staggering P2.5M increase! Another example is Rep. Diosdado “Dato” Arroyo (Cam. Sur) whose net worth of P83.7M in 2007 rose to P89M in 2008 – a more staggering increase of P5.3M! Now how could they be increasing their worth by that amount? Perhaps they have businesses and other legitimate income sources just like the richest representative, billionaire Cynthia Villar (Las Piñas) whose source of income is her real-estate lands in various locations in Parañaque and Las Piñas. But one cannot help but wonder how these officials really get all their staggering wealth.
Again I have nothing against their wealth, but I also cannot help but wonder what would happen to society, particularly their constituents if they could somehow shower their wealth to the less priviledged members of their respective districts. I do not mean for them to simply spoonfeed their money to these impoverised residents, rather I believe they can create employment oppurtunities for these people – with the aid of their “hard-earned” wealth – and improve lives other than their own.
I even wonder where they really spend such enourmous amounts of money. On luxury cars and impressive mansions, perhaps. Or maybe on grand vacations and royal treatments at various high-end establishments. In short – on an engrande or high maintenance life style. Wouldn’t we all profit more if our public servants were just like us – simple common folk who would desire for nothing more than the improvement of the common public’s life?
Wouldn’t it be a better service if our public officials can just content themselves with a simple car model, a modest house and a comfortable lifestyle while serving the general public? Again I have nothing against mansions, luxury cars and high maintenance living. Believe me, I’ve also dreamed of such luxuries in life and I’ve also longed for them. Given the chance, I would live such a life. But if I were a public official, I wouldn’t dare lead such a lifestyle while I am in public office when I can see the people I vowed to serve surviving on less than a P100 per day while my P100 is not even enough for a cup of coffee. I will not dare live such a lifestyle if I can see the kid of my constituent going to school in tattered slippers while I go to work in the latest and most expensive SUV model.
Point is: I have promised this people a better lifestyle. They look up to me to improve their conditions. Does it help them any that they can see me getting richer, enjoying a pompous lifestyle while they experience poverty day-in day-out without seemingly experiencing the economic revival that I had promised when I assumed office?
They already have the wealthy showbiz personalities of our country as their source of escape into the world of the rich and famous. Must I join the ranks of those showbiz personnas? No wonder our political scene had resembled the entertainment industry. Politicians have ceased to be public servants but had become entertainers whose grand lifestyles serve as a fantasy world of escape for impoverished citizens. But unlike the showbiz stars, these officials had candidly asked for the votes of the masses and had embarked on their gullibility to bring about their own selfish whims.
Pardon my gripe about the riches of these public servants. I myself had dreamed of serving as a public official. I knew that I would need to get rich – immensely – if I wanted to pay for the rigors of the election process and if I wanted people to really know me. But I had never dreamed of using my wealth to improve just my own way of living. I had dreamt of using my wealth to improve society by providing jobs, giving out scholarships and improving communities. I had actually considered using my own wealth to finance most public projects by donating my money to rehabilitation of barangay health centers or local community schools.
I know it is a very socialistic and utopian idea – to wish for a society wherein no one is that rich and no one is that poor. Wherein everyone would be middle class because the rich share what they have with the poor. And I know this is how communistic or socialistic governments operate. And I do not really wish for such a type of society because of all the horrors and flaws I’ve heard about it.
But wouldn’t it be grand if we would still retain our diplomacy yet also have a socialistic/communistic society in terms of resources.
I haven’t taken up any PolSci course in my entire college years and my knowledge of such political systems is very limited. And I know that I might be speaking opinions on things I do not really know about.
But the bottomline is: I wish our public servants wouldn’t gloat their riches when they are well aware that they have impoverished constituents who had voted them in office in the hope that it will be them who would experience, even just a small fraction of increase – just a few hundred pesos perhaps, in their net worth before the year is over. That is if they are not head deep in debt already.
