BEHIND THE SCENES

ALFRED P. DIZON

‘Powerful’ CBCPand ‘sipsip’ officials

BAGUIO CITY – With sirens blaring and signal lights flashing, I saw five spunky and stylish vehicles speeding along the national road while I was going to Baguio from La Trinidad, Benguet last week.

I noticed some had red plates to mean these were government cars. There was an Expedition, a Tucson and if I’m not mistaken, a Navigator. The other two SUVs, I presume, were backups filled with armed bodyguards. I was wondering if a senator, a congressman, a Cabinet secretary or even President Arroyo came for a visit. But none that I can recall since most visits by government officials are duly reported by the media and the Philippine Information Agency headed by its tireless regional director Helen Tibaldo.

“The gall of these arrogant officials,” I was thinking as vehicles along the way veered to make way for them. The gas guzzlers sped off. Pinatapok da ti kalsada. “Naglastog met dagitoyen (These arrogant people,)” I heard somebody shout. Oftentimes, I see government officials in expensive government cars in situations like this and yes, even during holidays when such vehicles should not be out on the streets even for delicadeza.

Those in government are not supposed to flaunt ostentatiously wealth and power in times like these considering high oil prices now making constituents of this Banana Republic more miserable and impoverished by the day.
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I asked my Korean friend Adrian how much gasoline he spends driving his Expedition he calls “Big Boy” daily from Tuding to Baguio. “Around P200,” he told me. Baguio to Bauang and back cost him around P1,600. “You have to be very, very rich to have a car like that,” I told him. He says he would like now to have a smaller car so he could conserve gas.

“Try converting to LPG,” I told him. “Anyway, conversion is available in Baguio.” I think he is mulling it. One time, I went down with him to Bauang using my aging Mazda pickup truck for a venture. I told him the truck only uses around P370 worth of diesel for a Baguio-Bauang and back trip.

Bauang Mayor Bobby de Guzman was smiling when he saw the vehicle as we departed for Baguio (makintab at matulin pa rin naman, he, he.) But I guess next time I will tell him my low diesel consumption, he would admire the aging horse.
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Rising oil prices is nowadays main issue of newspapers aside from Sulpicio Lines. The controversial ZTE-NBN contract, Ces Drilon kidnapping and Meralco-government tiff are now taking a back seat as the takers are laughing their way to the banks.

Top government officials go on junkets while the country bleeds. It is no wonder Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. wants La Gloria to make an accounting and explain how her administration is spending the more than P55-billion fund for relief operations and other social programs of Malacanang.

These funds, according to Pimentel, included the P9-billion calamity fund, the P4.7-billion President’s Social Fund (1.7 billion from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and P3 billion from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office), P800-million Contingent Fund and P650-million intelligence fund.)
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According to Pimentel, an accounting of the public funds has to be done for the sake of transparency considering the President has the discretion to disburse the P30-billion unprogrammed fund, the P5-billion Kilos Asenso Fund and the P3-billion Kalayaan sa Barangay Fund under the 2008 national budget.

The senator has a point considering that people are reeling from effects of high oil prices that commodities are getting more expensive by the day. How much of these funds would be used to alleviate the dismal plight of poor people, considering that some families don’t eat three meals a day?

Militant groups are saying everybody is suffering due to dire economic conditions except for the high and mighty and of course the sipsip who know how to jump ship when elections come around and when their padrinos or padrinas start to drown.

Administration officials have long been saying they have been steering the government in conceptualizing and implementing “sound economic policies.” But why are we still going to the dogs? We should be a Tiger Economy by now after this administration’s many years “in service to the people.”
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If this government has superb economic policies, why does it most often have to hear the opinion of the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines’ stand or comment on any issue under the sun before acting in doing “what is right for the people?”

Last week, Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said the government’s economic team will study the proposal to scrap the 12 percent Expanded Value Added Tax (EVAT) on oil in the wake of successive price increases of gasoline and other oil products, with prospects of more increases the coming weeks.

Dureza said the team was just waiting for an official statement of the CBCP on its views on the government’s policy on tax collection on oil products amid steep price increases the past weeks. The Press Secretary said the endorsement of the CBCP on a proposal to scrap EVAT on oil would carry much weight when the government’s economic team deliberates on the proposal.

He added Departments of Finance Sec. Margarito Teves and Trade and Industry Sec. Peter Fabila respectively were waiting for the CBCP’s recommendations on the issue of whether EVAT on oil should be scrapped. As of press time, Malacanang said it was open to temporary lowering of VAT on oil.
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Funny, but recently, the government was complaining of “interference” of religious groups like the CPCP on affairs of the State like when they joined rallies against the government as a result of the aborted ZTE-NBN deal wherein top government officials were accused of being on the take from a Chinese company.

Government propagandists said priests and nuns should attend to their business of praying while the State would attend to its affairs of running the country in making it become world-class (that nauseating term again.) People methinks, have become immune to issues of corruption hounding top government officials. It is no wonder, anti-government rallies are now getting dime a little except for the militant youth. Like a carabao, this Banana Republic is seen to wallow in the stinky mud up to 2010 when elections would give a whiff of fresh air or hope for the people in having a better future.