Family business

Reading the series of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism on the legislature should leave no more questions about why every clown and his mother is dying to win a seat in Congress, even if it means putting all assets in hock to bankroll an election campaign.

There’s the official remuneration from public coffers, amounting to more than P900,000 per senator and over P400,000 per congressman every month. There are the bodyguards, the special license plates, the sirens and blinkers on luxury vehicles paid for by taxpayers. Even the money for those Christmas cards, funeral wreaths and baptism gifts from your congressman are likely to have come from the pockets of Juan de la Cruz.

Most of those funds are not audited. Only intelligence units and the Office of the President, with its special funds, enjoy the same lack of accountability in spending public money.

Apart from all this, there is the congressional pork barrel. True, no money is released directly to lawmakers under this system. In having the privilege to pick out which projects should be funded through his pork barrel, however, a lawmaker has the opportunity to receive generous gifts, commissions or kickbacks.

There are other uses for the pork barrel, some of them benign, others controversial. Sectoral Rep. Satur Ocampo has been accused of using his pork barrel to abet activities of his former comrades in the communist underground. Ocampo has denied the accusations, but suspicions linger.

Also, the use of the pork barrel gives an incumbent lawmaker an edge over his rivals in winning hearts and minds during elections.

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Those figures for the upkeep of lawmakers should persuade voters to be more discerning in their choice of congressional representation.

But many voters in this country are either too poor to pay taxes or are rich enough to hire top accountants for tax evasion, and they don’t care how public funds are spent. The poor are happy to receive dole-outs during elections; the rich are concerned only about getting a piece of the action – one fat government contract can sustain a company for many years. Or else the rich are content to receive campaign promises that after the polls they will be left alone in their tax evasion by greedy politicians.

So you see why people are ready to cheat, buy votes or even commit murder to win an office where the basic pay will never make up for campaign expenditures. The value-added perks of public office have turned politics into big business in this country.

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Certain clans in fact treat politics like a family business, with spouses and children considering public office as an entitlement. Term limits set by law are a farce. When a clan’s patriarch is no longer eligible to run for mayor, for example, his wife takes his place while he runs for Congress. The wife is followed by the son, the second son, the daughter, the son-in-law. Sometimes even the mistress or her son carries on the family tradition.

It’s no longer unusual to find a father sitting in the Senate while a son is a congressman, another is a provincial governor and still another a mayor. Firmly entrenched in politics, the clan can then branch out to real businesses such as property development. You can almost see a local political kingpin, gazing out of a mansion overlooking a provincial capital, promising his teenage boy: "Someday, son, all this will be yours!"

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The Constitution bans political dynasties, but the provision needs an enabling law. Guess who’s supposed to pass the law?

Here we are about to amend the 17-year-old Constitution, and still that provision banning dynasties remains forgotten.

We can’t even enforce rules against nepotism, or are confused about the rules. Can President Arroyo appoint a cousin to head the Light Rail Transit Authority? Pacifico Fajardo concurrently holds a well-paying board seat in San Miguel Corp. Is it just a coincidence that the LRTA under Fajardo is now embroiled in a scandal regarding an alleged shakedown in connection with the expansion of the Light Rail Transit?

The presidency, naturally, is the top prize in the big business that is politics. Which is why candidates are willing to spend a minimum of P2 billion to win a position with a basic pay of about P50,000 a month.

How to recover those campaign funds – with a handsome ROI or return on investment – is the root of corruption in our weak republic.

Everyone knows what is wrong with the system, but no one is lifting a finger to initiate reforms. Especially not the ones who profit immensely from the status quo. They invoke realpolitik and believe they are simply providing for the future of their children. Cursed is the father who will rob his children of their birthright.

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IT HAD TO COME TO THIS… That hole yesterday where the word "kinse" should have been in the huge Napoleon Brandy billboard on Roxas Boulevard speaks volumes about the way we resolve conflicts in our weak republic.

Since nothing short of running a 747 into those giant billboards can persuade Destileria Limtuaco and its owners the Limpe clan to pull out their obnoxious ads, nothing should also stop protesters from taking out their own ads, asking exactly the same question: Nakatikim ka na ba ng kinse anyos (Have you tasted a 15-year-old)? Only this time, another question should be added: "Nakatikim ka na ba ng lethal injection (Have you tasted lethal injection)?"

That’s language even dirty old alcoholics fantasizing about 15-year-olds will understand.

If Limtuaco protests, it can be told that only nincompoops with a malicious mind will think the ad refers to any particular brandy.

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BLOODLUST: After endorsing the Gospel according to Mel Gibson, a.k.a. The Passion of the Christ, the Roman Catholic Church should stop pontificating against excessive violence in the movies. The blood and gore in the movie is worse than the worst in the Freddy and Jason genre, and worse than the orgy of bloodletting in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The Passion… is guaranteed to bring out your inner sadomasochist. Oh well, anything to revive interest in a scandal-plagued religion. Enjoy.