Trust in the Church…but not in our gov’t

If there is something going which is very positive for the folks at the National Transformation Council (NTC), it was that report conducted by the EON Stakeholders Relations Firm, which was presented to the media a few days ago that stated, “The Church is the most trusted institution in the country, according to the 2014 Philippine Trust Index (PTI).” This is a far cry from that highly-questionable Social Weather Station (SWS) survey that the most trusted man in the Philippines is Vice President Jejomar Binay. Well, how many times have we said it here that SWS was part and parcel of the Yellow propaganda machinery, where VP Binay is still considered an ally.

But it is for this very reason why the NTC was created by church leaders, not just by his eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal (he is still in ICU at the Perpetual Help Hospital), Arch. Ramon Argüelles of Lipa, or Arch. Fernando Capalla of Davao, but including Protestant and Evangelical churches led by Pastor Art Corpuz and Greco Belgica and yes, including many Muslim Imams and civic society. For this reason, the NTC comes to challenge the Aquino regime for losing its high moral ground; it’s credibility and therefore the trust of the Filipino people.

It is highly atrocious that politicians, especially in the Senate Blue or Yellow Ribbon Committee are acting like judges producing evidences against Vice President Binay, when these are no longer “in-aid” of legislation, but “in-aid” of election by Senators wanting to seek higher office. Sure, those Senators may have the right motive in exposing the corruption of the Vice President…however it would have been better if they themselves filed a Senate Resolution asking the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate the VP.

Now while a great number of our political leaders have gotten their hands dirty being involved in the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) through the use or misuse of fake NGO’s, a great number of our Filipino people, at least 15 million children go hungry according to Senator Grace Poe. That story came out of the headlines of the Philippine Daily Inquirer…but I wasn’t born yesterday, I can smell an obvious clear-cut effort to sell the name of Grace Poe to the masses so she could potentially be our next President.

But as what we’ve been saying all along… we’ve so deep into personality politics…people are still looking for that white knight in shining armor to bring us out of this vicious cycle of being a 3rd world country. I’m betting that Sen. Grace Poe is being propped up by unseen conglomerates out to make huge monies if they accept the challenge. But it certainly won’t change anything in this country and we’d just continue on our miserable way and more and more people would still be in poverty.

Sure many Senators and Congressmen are honestly trying to help solve our poverty problem. Even P-Noy has his conditional cash transfer (CCT) program under the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) but these people are so hard-headed… dole out’s don’t uplift people from poverty to lower middle class. Surely you must have read that old proverb, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Let’s get rid of dole outs!

But this is the Philippines where nothing apparently works! So under the Aquino regime…they go about their merry way giving out cash to supposedly feed the poor… and the result is a staggering 15 million children still hungry. Hmmm the question begging for an answer is… has the CCT program failed miserably… or in this era of massive corruption…could it be that the DSWD waylaid a huge part of that money into some crooked officials personal coffers? Methinks DSWD officials should be targeted for a lifestyle check just to find out if those monies ended up in the wrong place.

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I’ve been a keen observer of what’s going on at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), where its runway is the principal cause of traffic congestion, leading to horrendous flight delays. Last May 21 a news item from the STAR blared, “Gov’t allots P2 B for new parallel runway.” This was the best news we heard about NAIA in a long time. They’ve been constructing more terminals in that aviation facility, but no attention was given to the need for a parallel runway. Finally the DOTC has focused on this.

But just three days ago, another news item appeared in the STAR, which blared, “Parallel NAIA runway needs further study, says Hotchkiss.” That article says that the new runway won’t be finished during the term of Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III. But isn’t that true to the rest of all the projects that were all delayed due to the wishy-washy thinking of the student government inside Malacañang? I rest my case! We still have a student government that after four years in office should not be allowed to graduate!

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