Avarice, inequity, mischief

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Avarice, inequity, mischief
Sunday, 08 18, 2002

Whoever said in 1775 that gambling is the child of avarice, the brother to inequity and the father of mischief, long before the “strong republic” was in the spin masters’ mind, probably was foretelling what would befall a nation of 7,100 islands in the year 2002.

A government that is trying to put a semblance of legitimacy to its ascension displays an uncanny greed for more power, to put the statement in every citizen’s mind that “have power, will govern, be legitimate.” A government that abhors those who serve as a threat to its wobbling seat of power is committing the greatest injustice of all – humiliating them as a policy instrument, according to the former DepEd Secretary Raul Roco, even before the evidence of corruption can be proved – saying goodbye to due process and all. A government that thrives in a controversy of its own doing fathers a hundred more controversies, devours its own creations and spawns more republics than it can manage.

Now comes the Theme Park Manila, to be built in that vast expanse of reclaimed land by the bay, to nestle the foundations of the gambling republic. Pagcor proudly proclaims it will be a park “integrating entertainment and amusement attractions with traditional gaming facilities to specially accommodate non-gaming patrons.” No matter how it is packaged, it will still be gambling, with even Pagcor labeling it as the “Las Vegas of Asia.”

The projections are simply fantastic: Theme Park Manila will generate investments totaling about $15 billion, or P750 billion. One can only shudder at the thought of how much of this will be invested for a presidential election. One needs only P3 billion to make a respectable showing in a presidential election. A mere one percent of the expected investment can already have one elected as president twice over!

Pagcor is likewise reported to have approved at least 20 arcade projects, which will flood the country with thousands of slot machines – the latest ubiquitous symbol of immoral governance. Although the current occupant of Malacañang has declared her belated opposition to the slot machines project, one can never tell under what repackaging it will be made to reappear.

That Pagcor has under its franchise the authority to undertake these activities on a national scale does not make everything right.

Everything is falling into place. The franchise of Pagcor is due to expire in six years yet, but already a bill has been filed for its extension for 50 years. This guarantees Theme Park Manila to be operational in 2004 without any danger of Pagcor’s being eased out of the operations even beyond 2010, another presidential election year. Quite a gamble Pagcor is not expected to lose.

Who are behind this expansion program? Ask a clique that Congressman Rolex Suplico appropriately described in his resolution as those who rotate around the First Embarrassment. They are supposed to be a group of undisclosed investors, who stand to make a pile out of our poor and wretched for whom dreams of sudden wealth beyond the dreams of avarice will be cultivated. These investors will never have it so good and, very soon, the question often asked after the truth is out will be: Is it fair to all concerned?

Is it fair to make our children greedy for filthy money, even as it adds another tribulation to the parent who expects his child to be in school, but instead finds him at some arcade or a corner of the city, trying his luck on that one-armed bandit?

Is it fair to find your brother suffering from the ignominy of literally losing his shirt at the baccarat table at the Theme Park Manila? That is injustice to his self-esteem!

Is it fair to have a favored few gravitating toward the powers-that-be, then taking away with their mischief the hard-earned peso that for millions can hardly come by?

Senator Angara rightly labels this as the transformation of this predominantly Christian nation into a gambling republic, under a government that has no regard for our moral values. Worse, a clergy that itself benefits from the gambling table is scandalously silent over this national scandal. And where is the society that is not as civil as it projects itself to be?

That is the tragedy of our time, under a government determined to remain in power through means most foul. The call of the hour is to reverse this form of bankruptcy.

The franchise of Pagcor is under review. It would do well for Congress to once and for all lay down a national policy against gambling, leaving this government agency shorn of any legal right to weave a web of deceit that traps the unsuspecting public. The Senate committee on government corporations and public enterprises, fortunately with Sen. Sonny Osmeña as its chairman, to whom the privilege speech of Angara denouncing the gambling republic was referred for investigation, in aid of legislation, should be able to unmask the latest batch of carpetbaggers fronting for them who are preparing too early for 2004.

In nature, the queen termite can live up to 50 years, and lays eggs at the rate of several thousands a day. These termites then go on to eat away everything that lies in their path – wood, paper and other organic matter – rendering these things weak, rotten and useless to be of any use. How appropriate that the termite metaphor should be mouthed by the government during these troubled times. Like an unerring boomerang, the metaphor has come back to its thrower. The termites that gnaw at the so-called strong republic are present in the government itself. Can a strong republic built on gambling chips and reams of IOUs survive the termites that tunnel into our pockets and wreak irreparable damage our social fabric? Pinto, our resident philosopher at the Senate, will answer you – even without pausing to think – with an emphatic “NO.” Or if he is in one of those rare, pensive moods, he’d probably quote W.R. Inge, the dean of St. Paul’s: “Gambling is a disease of barbarians, superficially civilized.”


For comments about this website:Webmaster@tribune.net.ph

The Daily Tribune © 2002