Today’s View : Rotten, rotten system [Prints & Traces]

By DON J. PAGUSARA
Davao Today

My friend Lito, having been appraised of the Pork Barrel system, especially the exposé on the DAP…declaimed, as follows:

Porbida!  Wala gyud diay!  Wa gyud diay  esperansa  ang katawhan aning gobyernoha! Dubok gyud!  Dubok !  Sa ato pa, si Noynoy is also guilty? Pagka dakong drama diay ang nahitabo! Gidula-dulan lang gyud ta sa mga halangdon nato diha sa taas?]

 [My gosh!  It’s utter folly!  There’s really nothing to hope for with this government!  It’s really rotten!  Rotten! So Noynoy is also guilty?  What a great drama is going on!  So, we are just being fooled by the honorables up there?]

I said,  Mao gyud!  Sistema man gud ang dakong panuway dinhi!  Dili man ni kuwestiyon sa honesty o katarong sa usa ka tawo – ma president man siya o senador or unsa diha.  Nga makaingon ka,  “Dili ko motuo nga mangawat na!”   Ang punto dinhi mao ni:  nagmugna silag sistema diin ang  politikong opisyal gihatagag higayon nga mogamit og pampublikong  salapi para sa pagpasutoy sa iyang interes  o unsay makatabang sa iyang  kaugalingong ambisyon ug carreer  isip politico.

[Certainly! It’s the system that is the culprit here!  This not a matter of personal honesty or integrity of a politician – whether he’s a president or a senator or whatever — so that you can say, “Oh I don’t believe he will steal!”  The point here is this: they are creating a system where the politician-official is given the opportunity to use public money to advance his interests or what can help his own personal ambition and career as a politician.]

And this system they created is given a wondrous name!  DAP or Disbursement Acceleration Program –  Oh, it sounds something that seems to benefit the nation!  But, the big question is why does this go to the legislators?  That’s what make it suspect!  And so many quarters have opined that what the President did with the DAP fund was illegal!

Imagine that!  Big lump sums of money going to the personal discretion of the Congressmen and Senators who were blest with Noynoy’s benevolence?  Did these sums of money go to projects?  Haha!  And why not  all the legislators were given? If DAP funds are indeed meant for “Accelerated Development”, then where?  What concretely are these development initiatives that  the senators and congressmen [as recipients of the funds] have undertaken? 

If they claim that the money they received went to projects, then pinpoint these projects!  And we will ask why can they be considered “accelerated development” projects? Hahaha! Pastilan!  Usa pud ni si Noynoy nga gilimonglimong lang ta!  [My gosh,  Even this Noynoy is also trying to run us around!]

All sorts of explanation and justification are aired by his trumpeters!   So now, what happen to the “tuwid na daan”?   Murag nikalit man lag kadaghang kurbada ug liko-liko!  [It seems to have suddenly suffered lots of twists and turns?]  Hahaha!

So now, we understand very clearly why Mr. Noynoy does not want to abolish the Presidential Pork Barrel!

Mr. President, If you don’t bow to the demands of your “bosses”, the bosses will be deeply and greatly disappointed!  You might taste the same menu prepared by the people to your predecessor.

And what about the Freedom of Information Bill, Mr. President?  Haven’t you given the marching order yet?  Has it gone down the drain?  Maybe the next President will have the enviable task and duty of retrieving it, if at all it can be retrieved once the current Congress shall have junked it.

Going back to the palatable issue of the Pork Barrel, maybe there is some sentimental value attached to your stance of maintaining it, huh? Maybe it is your way of giving tribute to your mother Cory for having created this excellent system of the CDF or Countrywide Development Fund — excellent in the sense that it sounds replete with benevolent motives?

But experience has proven your sentiment wrong!  Because the CDF was a subject of controversy way back in the 1990s, such that it was converted into PDAF funds which burst into a monstrous scam!.  And this DAP which you must have with the magic of your reputation kept hidden from view, is also now exposed  as  a highly irregular system?  Hahaha!

Kapuliki kag panagang karon, Mr. President!  Nagpaka-aron-ingnon man gud kang  malinis ug di gyud katahapan, hold-upper man pud diay ka?  [Now, Mr. President, it seems you have your hands full!  That’s the trouble with pretending to be clean and above-board, when you are also another hold-upper?]

That would be enough for today, Mr. President!  Pagtinarong na ba!  Sama sa imong tul-id nga dalan!  Hahaha! [Get things right! Like your righteous path, haha!]