The true state of the Philippines today!
It's the second day of January 2015 and let's start this year with very important lessons that hopefully our readers would end up realizing that they should never, never accept the status quo and find ways to change things in this New Year 2015. It is my earnest hope that by giving this information to our readers… it would enlighten them to today's reality.
First off, allow me to take excerpts from the column that Carmen "Chit" Pedrosa wrote last Saturday Dec.27th about a very important topic that Filipinos have to address and fix as soon as possible otherwise… the Philippines could never hope to move forward. Allow me to reprint that portion of Chit Pedrosa's column and hopefully jolt and wake you up!
"A 2014 study by Julio Teehankee, College Dean at the La Salle University, shows 178 family dynasties rule 73 of the 80 provinces. According to Bobby Tuazon, director of policy studies at the Center for People Empowerment in Governance, 21 of 24 seats in the Senate fall under the control of political families. In the House of Representatives, 80% of 229 seats are dominated by dynasties. In a 2014 study by Ronald Mendoza, director of the AIM Policy Center shows 75% of members of Congress and 80% of Governors and Mayors belong to political dynasties.
According to Forbes list of billionaires, the 40 richest in the Philippines have combined assets of $34 billion. A 2012 study by the World Bank shows 25.2% of Filipinos live below the poverty line of $1.25 a day. The figure of the CIA for the same year is higher, 26.5%. These figures come from reliable academic groups, not from political opponents. Responsible institutions have not responded adequately to its dangers. Some of these institutions have chosen to ignore the creeping catastrophe, thinking the problem will go away.
That is wishful thinking. The few are determined to use their wealth to keep in power and the status quo through the present system of government of money and celebrity popularity. The wealthy and powerful few will use every means to make sure they stay in control of the resources of the country. They treat the present presidential unitary government as their principal weapon and the way to ensure that the status quo remains. Government is now about who has the big money. No wonder the same few families are in full control of the country's political life."
This information has not seeped through the masses, who until now praise our politicians as if they were demi-gods. Our political system has become so rotten, it has been more than a year since the scam of Janet Lim Napoles was uncovered to reveal that a great majority of our politicians have taken liberties in what Filipinos say "Ang Cavan ng Bayan!
It is for this very reason why the Comelec has been "allowed" by Congress through a law to use the Precinct Count Optical Scan to cheat in the 2010 Presidential elections and in the 2013 Mid-Term elections. And when questions arose about the massive electronic cheating… Congress and the Senate Blue Ribbon committee didn't care to investigate the Comelec… after all; these politicians won their seats thanks to the PCOS and not from the vote of the Filipino people. No thanks to C-Cimpel!
I have written on this subject matter in so many columns last year and so did many other columnists. But the political establishment totally ignored our cries… just in the same way that those political crooks who got caught by the Janet Lim Napoles scam are still not languishing in our jails for stealing the people's money. So if you folks are hard up… just look at our politicians and ask yourself…how could they get so rich?
Another Star columnist that I would like to quote is my good friend, Jarius Bondoc who wrote in his "Gotcha" column last Dec.24th about The Philippines being the Top Ten Worsened States. Since it is quite lengthy, allow me to give you excerpts of what Jarius wrote.
"Makes us wonder if there's still government at all, or if we're already a failed state. In fact, the 2014 Fragile (formerly Failed) States Index ranks the Philippines fifth among ten whose situations alarmingly worsened from 2013. Rated by Fund for Peace, the country slipped to 52nd, from 59th last year, among countries susceptible to disintegration." Then Jarius gives a litany of our nation's woes, but like I said, I will only cite the more important ones.
"Uneven development, as seen in wide income. gaps and exclusivist growth; Poverty and economic decline, due to government debt, unemployment, low purchasing power, inflation. Political-military indicators: State legitimacy under question due to corruption, ineptitude, political dynasties, rigged elections; Declining services, especially of police as shown by criminality, education as shown in illiteracy, water and sanitation, unreliability of roads, infrastructures, and energy, poor health care, telecommunications." So for the Year 2015, I ask our readers to ponder upon the problems of our nation and find ways to solve them because they will not go away. We must move forward.
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