It’s not the first time that I heard Manong tricycle driver grumbling, but this time, it seemed he really was pissed off. I could see why, as he started to maneuver his trike along the newly-bakbak and dusty road towards my destination. Talk about sloppy government service plus public expenses plus taxes plus incompetent public servants plus “korapsyon”…
There’s a never-ending stream of public woes, and it’s not only Manong who’s openly expressing their sentiments and “pagkadismaya” but many among ordinary “masa” who are not beholden to politicians. One hears it on a daily basis in jeepney rides as one goes to work, or among people waiting for a ride along busy thoroughfares.
Thus, one wonders (although we already know what will happen next) what’s in store for this upcoming circus of an election once again, as politicians are still at it, that old tactic of sugar-coating and white-washing in public their already tarnished image, with tarpaulin-printed lies. The irritants are everywhere, like dirt all over the place, sticking their faces on every nook and corner, uncaring about the mess they scatter all around.
There’s one party-list that ignore propriety, by simply sticking its name on a long string of walls in one of the city’s busy stretch, making one’s blood boil to feverish level.
Should I decide to vote, I will never choose as politicians who stick their ‘photo-shopped’, edited faces around the city. Many, if not all of these politicians have been raking in millions in government “service”, flaunting their insatiable greed in public, spending so much in this electoral process without any reservation as what people might think of what they are up to.
Learning how to “get the votes” in elections through the years, these “veteran plunderer” politicians will surely find a way to get to the public coppers again, after pouring millions in “investments” during elections. These people smile prettily in public, mutter dirty jokes and petty talk on TV ads and make promises they never intend to fulfill at all.
But people are getting weary and wary of all these deceptions. If only people’s choices are honoured, no crook could really sit in public office. The reality however is that the crooks are holding key positions in the electoral processes that ensure their perpetuation in power and are declared ‘winners’, while those with true intents are the losers.
This is the problem that activists and social analysts call as a social malady caused by a ROTTEN SYSTEM. No amount of changing leaders can cure this social cancer that continue to corrupt the very fabric of our society, like rust eating into the hardest of steel.
So what else is new? Like the tricycle driver, not a few among our compatriots are resigned to “our fate”. Still, many among socially aware citizens cannot let the wicked continue with their misdeeds without a fight.
We can only pray that the people’s will are not be circumvented again by the shrewd and the ‘powerful’ in government, and maybe we should pray hardest so that divine intervention will be upon this election. Who are we going to depend on but ourselves. We simply cannot let ourselves be ‘conned’ again, and so we must only be vigilant but be actively involved in everything around us.
We have to continue looking after every single FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT that we have as a citizen of this wretched nation where the majority have become easy prey of the tyrants in government service. We must always remember that we have not elected and installed them in public service, but that they have deceived us unforgivably into believing that the Filipinos voted for them. We know better now.
