Mendicancy

As I See It : The poor prefer jobs, not food handouts

, Jan 06, 2006
Updated 00:02amam (Mla time)
Neal H. Cruz
Inquirer

THE Inquirer reported early this week that two of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's closest allies and most ardent defenders, former Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano and Rep. Prospero Pichay, are urging the reopening of the Election Returns (ERs) to prove that she did not cheat in the 2004 elections. I have written a number of columns urging the same, and I am glad that at least two of Ms Arroyo's allies share the same view. Pichay even echoed this column's argument that since the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) is already recounting the ERs for the vice-presidential candidates, because of the electoral protest of opposition candidate Loren Legarda against Vice President Noli de Castro, it might as well do the same for the presidential candidates whose votes are written on the same ERs.

It would be sensible for Ms Arroyo to follow the advice of Garci and Pichay -- if she really did not cheat, that is. Ms Arroyo's guilt or innocence can be gauged from how she reacts to the proposal. If she did not cheat, she would immediately endorse the proposal and have a petition filed with the PET to that effect. But if the suspicions that she and Garci cheated were true, she would either keep quiet or put up excuses for not reopening the ERs.

So we would know whether Ms Arroyo is a bogus President or not by how she treats the proposal of her two allies.

Come to think of it, Garci is supposed to be Ms Arroyo's partner in crime in the alleged cheating. So, why would he urge the reopening of the ERs if he knows they cheated? Is this just another trick in the labyrinthine saga of the Garci tapes? Is this a result of their desperation to put behind the questions about her legitimacy? Or does Garci really believe that reopening the ERs will prove definitely that Ms Arroyo won "fair and square" and therefore erase all doubts about her legitimacy?

On the other hand, why did Ms Arroyo's allies in Congress reject all efforts to reopen the ERs in places questioned by the opposition? If Congress did not railroad her proclamation, there would be no doubt about her presidency now. And had the PET not dismissed outright the election protest of Susan Roces, substituting for her dead husband, Fernando Poe Jr., there would be no doubt as to who is the president now -- if Ms Arroyo did not cheat. And if the House did not throw out the impeachment case, there would be no suspicion whatsoever.

But because Ms Arroyo's allies used technicalities and their superiority in numbers to thwart all efforts for a fair hearing of the election results, she is now reaping the whirlwind. One cannot help but suspect that there was skullduggery behind all the efforts to block the reopening of the ERs. The suspicions will not go away until she proves definitely that she won without cheating. And the efforts to get her out of Malacañang will not cease until the end of her term unless she erases all doubts that she is the rightful President.

The only way to do that is to reopen the ERs.

* * *

The President announced with much fanfare in greeting the New Year that she would allocate P35 billion as food subsidy to the poor. She did not say where the P35 billion would come from, except the vague assertion that it would come from "savings." If there were such savings, why were many infrastructure projects halted for lack of funds? Why have thousands of teachers, war veterans and other government employees not received the remuneration due them? Why is the government not paying its obligations to contractors and suppliers if there is enough money?

 

But assuming she would be able to scrape the money for the food subsidy, is this a wise way to use this much money? The poor need jobs, not handouts. They would be much happier working for their food rather than receiving them like beggars. Handouts fill their stomachs but rob them of their dignity.

 

Handouts promote a culture of mendicancy. Get the people used to eating handouts and they will see no need to work or even to look for jobs. Why bother to work when you can eat without working anyway?

 

This culture is now becoming evident in families with members working abroad. Family members here who receive money from their overseas workers regularly don't bother to look for jobs anymore. They just wait for the monthly handouts from their relatives abroad.

 

The amount of P35 billion is a lot of money coming from the pockets of taxpayers. Couldn't it be put to better use by generating jobs for the poor? Then the money is recycled for more productive pursuits. Spend it all for food subsidy and it goes one way into the stomach and then to the toilet. No productive chain reaction except perhaps babies.

Unfortunately, that is the only way the President knows how to stop the plunge in her popularity rating. This is now a policy of her administration: indirect bribery. That was how she made administration congressmen block the impeachment case against her. That was how she made local government officials support her in the impeachment fight. That was how she made all of them support Charter change. And that is how she plans to pull herself out of the hole where the popularity polls have dumped her.

And that is why the government is going bankrupt despite squeezing the people for more and more taxes. (Prices will go up again this month as she raises the expanded value added tax to the maximum 12 percent. That's her New Year's gift to the people.)

©2006 www.inq7.net all rights reserved

-anben-

www.boronganon.blogspot.com

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