By DON J. PAGUSARA
Prints & Traces
Archbishop Tagle, in the wake of the scandalous pork barrel issue, exhorts capitalists to shun selfishness and smilingly prods them to be selfless. Well, this is from the viewpoint of a guardian of faith and morals.
But capitalists are guided only by their time-honored creed – the greed for profit. They don’t pay any heed to so-called social conscience. They don’t have any moral responsibility to share their surplus with the have-nots.
In the pursuance of their capitalist dreams and goals, they have their eyes focused only on the Peso or the Dollar sign and the numeral digits following it to the right. Beyond the columnar sheets on their wide office tables, they don’t have any qualms about the dirt and stench of social reality or the rough and tumble of people’s lives, as long as profits continue to flow into their cash vaults and or bank accounts.
Maybe, they can afford to exhibit a gesture of courtesy to listen to the Churchman’s injunctions, but only in so far as they can bear the softness of his words. But to heed his prescriptions for the uplift of the poor population’s human conditions? Let that be just an incidental upshot of luxuriant business growth – the so-called “trickle down” effect of economic progress.
This is the inevitable logic of the “free enterprise” economy or what the ruling class calls “democracy.” Under this state of affairs, the phenomenon of “ever-widening gap” between the rich and the poor is a perpetual scourge for those at the base of the social pyramid.
And the polite exchange of pleasantries and the handshakes after the homily will be as ceremonial avowals to maintain the status quo. Nothing will ever change! Not in the hearts or consciences of capitalists, nor in the actualities of misery and suffering of the masses of the poor, the deprived and the oppressed.
And the bureaucrat capitalists? They who use the people’s money as investments for personal profit to enrich themselves? They who are otherwise known as politicians? The honorables in the halls of Congress? The bureaucrats in the corridors of power — from the Chief Executive down to the Cabinet people and down to the governors and mayors?
Will they heed the exhortations of the Churchman?
No. They do not need to. The politicians — our honorable legislators in the Senate and House of Representatives — do not need to be obeisant to the bishops and priests of the Church hierarchy. They need only to open their ears and their hearts to the people. Mind you, Churchman Tagle’s words are not the will of God. It is the People’s Voice [with capital P and capital V] that is the Will of God.
But, as evidenced by history and tradition, our honorable politicians are bound to be deaf. Because they can only listen to the dictates of their political ambitions and vested interests. Political careerism and personal aggrandizement are twin words in the vocabulary of politicians. They are bound flesh and bone, mind and heart, persuasion and conscience, to the logic of these twin realities.
Behold the goings-on in Congress on this very minute. As I said, they are equipped with cerebral tools to maneuver their vested interests. It’s very natural for them to safeguard and advance these interests. These are irresistible motivations for them to make use of their utmost intellectual devices in order for the status quo to be maintained.
The “million people march”, and even another “million people action” at Edsa on September 11 cannot deter them from designing a new garb for the pork barrel privilege.
Unsaon man nila pagpaniguro nga magdugay sila diha sa Kongreso o diha sa sangtuwaryo sa gobyerno kun mawala ang pork barrel intawon? Mao man ni ang ilang hinagiban pagpanghaylo sa katawhan nga sila kanunayng botohan sa ilang puwesto sa panahon sa eleksiyon?
[How can they perpetuate themselves in Congress or in the sanctuary of their office if this pork barrel is gone? This is their main instrument so that they are always able to garner votes for their reelection to office?]
The venerable Churchman talks of selfishness and greed among capitalists. What about the politicians’ greed for power and wealth? Ha-ha. They are identical twins. It’s hard to distinguish between who is greedier and who is more selfish. Sometimes you are tempted to lump them into the same “genetic” tribe. Are they?
They will still be singing the same PDAF tra-la-la in this year’s season of Jesus’ nativity. (davaotoday.com)
Congress, pork barrel
