Money talks, and more

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Money talks, and more
Sunday, 05 09, 2004

Looking back, the mind-boggling spending extravaganza of public funds for the campaign was the ultimate turn-off. Plunder was the name of the game. Cash was available alright. A government functionary, with offices somewhere around the Elliptical Center in Quezon City, on-board a flight to Davao City last Friday confided to us he had brought P25 million to Mindanao the week before and that another P25 million was being carried by him that day for distribution to others. Will there still be money left for government to spend after tomorrow?

Cash could be available up to a certain extent, but as of today, there are reports that many government agencies have yet to release the salaries of their employees. Naubusan na raw. And yet, there are plenty of promises to give cash, in the midst of a hyped victory propped up by the managed surveys.

There is not enough cash or promises to buy the decency of the Filipino voter, and somebody will have to suffer for this. It is simply too much, the spending of public funds I mean, that any right-thinking voter would certainly think that if he gives those already in power another chance at power, what is to stop them from doing a Marcos before the new term expires? They could very well cook up a so-called revolution from the center, to perpetuate themselves in power. It is simply too much, that if public funds could be spent with impunity during a borrowed – hijacked and temporary, according to others – term in office, how much more spending and abuse will there be under a fresh term of six years?

A candidate worked the entire campaign on the weakness of the poor for the sight of lucre, in whatever form and denomination, be it a health card, a can of paint to beautify his hovel, a gallon of water, a scholarship, a bag of gravel for a strip of road, or outright cash, or simply a promise. Little did that candidate and her minions realize that the Filipino’s self esteem cannot be bought. Yes, the Filipino will receive what is offered to him; it is his money anyway that is being given to him, but the Filipino will spite the offeror for that political gesture by going against the latter: May halong hiya pa rin siya sa kanyang sarili. And that is when the payback occurs.

The check for a monstrous sum – the exact amount yet undetermined, the number of ciphers still being subject to debate – given to a popular movie star, given supposedly for services rendered in the campaign, but obviously only for the purpose of raising the hand of her favored candidate, highlight the obvious: Public funds are being squandered to guarantee victory, and the sum given was not paltry compared to two hundred pesos given to the voter just to be able to give a semblance of a crowd in a campaign sortie or for five hundred pesos for his vote on election day.

The campaign of one candidate was blinded by the managed surveys she herself capitalized on to project a winning edge. Her stupid drumbeaters have been making too much publicity about her non-existent lead, and eventually mixed the fantasy of their own making and the real numbers they opted not to recognize. And they brushed aside the decent path of pursuing with real hard work the need to overcome the big lead the real leading candidate had mustered. Nagkamali ng diskarte. That is the tragedy when lies are repeated many times over: The liar eventually believes in her lies, only to realize belatedly that the real truth has already passed her by. Of course, money was behind all those managed surveys; but buying out stupidity is an impossibility.

The managed media is another. How else can one explain the dearth of coverage on so many newsworthy events involving the opposition candidates as distinguished from the incessant undeserved encomiums for the highest ever spending candidate? Money first before I query, as one paid hack would start it.

That caper at the Senate was a dead giveaway of how somebody could possibly be made to win (by hook and by crook). Managed results, anyone? The projected switching of certificates of canvass scheduled to be done right at the building where, by the Constitution, the certificates of canvass are to be deposited awaiting the national canvass by Congress, can be successful only with the use of money. The whistle-blower from Caloocan, whoever he is, was not blinded at all, and he chose to be decent and expose it.

I am not equating with money the en masse dismissal of the disqualification cases, be it local or national. But somebody sounding like a senator called over the phone as I am writing this piece and threatened: “I will have you assassinated if you write that money changed hands!” “ Assassinate” is one word that, to me, now means “shut up or else” after G.S. sent to Tito Sotto a package of damning evidence. So, I will now simply say, the petitioners probably had no money to pay a good election lawyer like Boy Brillantes in the first place, that is why their cases could not prosper at all.

Tomorrow, accept the money anyway, then vote according to your conscience.

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