#title:The Local Government Officials' Hollow and Farcical Call to Support Arroyo<br>
@@@@@<h1>The Local Government Officials' Hollow and Farcical Call to Support Arroyo</h1><!-- Simon "Ka Filiw" Naogsan, Spokesperson, Cordillera Peoples' Democratic Front, March 20, 2008 </em><br><br>
In the midst of the NBN-ZTE scandal and the mounting calls for Arroyo's resignation, several local government officials, recently spent more than 5.2 million pesos for an advertising blitz in the major national newspapers expressing support for the Arroyo administration. Among the signatories were congressmen, governors, and mayors from the Ilocos and Cordillera regions. In this shameless exercise and wanton waste of money, they harped on the "economic growth" under Arroyo. The title of one of the Malacaņang-paid ads said "28 quarters economic growth" but the text said "26 quarters". They could not even get their figures straight!<br>
This was followed in the local weeklies by "praise releases" from the Cordillera governors who expressed their "great faith and confidence in Arroyo's leadership" and "reaffirmed their commitment of support for her dynamic leadership until her term ends in 2010." They cited as reasons for their support the economic growth and infrastructure projects under Arroyo. These claims would be almost funny if they didn't pathetically fall flat in the face of reality.<br><br>
Firstly, what economic growth are these politicians prattling about? Even government data shows that the unemployment rate grew last January, with more than nine million Filipinos unemployed or underemployed. Furthermore, the number of poor Filipinos jacked up from 23.8 million in 2003 to 27.6 million in 2006. The chasm between the rich and the poor continues to widen not only in the Cordillera but also in the entire country. The prices of gasoline and basic commodities are skyrocketing by a monthly average of 5.4%, with food reaching up to 7%. A kilo of rice is now P30 and the rice supply is fast dwindling. The Philippines cannot even grow its own food. And these politicians have the gall to call this "economic growth"?<br>
With a little arm-twisting and bribes from Malacaņang, the Cordillera politicians are turning a blind eye on the stark poverty and hunger of their constituents. The Cordillera provinces are among the 20 poorest provinces in the country. One need only take a look at the growing number of children begging in the streets, selling plastic bags and eking out a living by any means they could. Vegetable farmers are losing out to import liberalization and smuggled vegetables. Cordillera peasants are buried under mounting production costs, trapped in usurious debts, and bankrupted by the frequently low prices of their produce. More and more of them flock to the cities and town centers, desperately seeking even temporary jobs to tide them and their families for another day.<br><br>
Secondly, the much ballyhooed highway projects in the Cordillera are actually a World Bank-dictated prerequisite to facilitate and hasten the entry and operations of large-scale destructive mining. Arroyo has opened up 66% of the entire Cordillera for corporate mining with no regard for ancestral land rights. The highway projects also serve to conjure an illusion of development and modernization, when in fact they are regular milking cows of corrupt politicians and government bureaucrats and their favored contractors.<br><br>
Immoderate greed is a trademark of the Arroyo gang, whose example is followed by local politicians and bureaucrats. The three billion peso loan for the Phase II and Phase III rehabilitation of the Halsema Highway from Mt. Data, Mountain Province to Banaue, Ifugao is rife with anomalies. Up to 50% of the contract cost goes to "SOP" or kickbacks. The contractors themselves admit that a whopping 20% is collected up front by the congressmen and/or governors as "tongpats" or reward for obtaining the funds, 3% is used as "hush money" for losing bidders (who deliberately jack up their bids so that their "rivals" will win, in exchange for taking their turn in winning the bid the next time around), 12% is collected as EVAT, 10% is earmarked as the contractor's profit margin, and 5-10% is paid to government employees who "facilitate" the contract's documents and give passing marks during inspection. The biggest contractors are dummy corporations or kumpadres and campaign contributors of congressmen and governors. They get the juiciest contracts.<br><br>
It isn't surprising that most of the work for Phase II is substandard. When news of corruption in the Halsema Highway funds blew up, officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) made a big show of ordering the shoddy work to be removed and replaced, but until now, no substandard sections have been removed and replaced. Moreover, DPWH officials had the gall to claim that work for Phase II was 80% completed.<br><br>
As a former employee of the National Irrigation Administration, DPWH-Mountain Province, and later of the Commission on Audit in the old Region 1, I know how the system works. The regular updates I get from current government employees and officers, not to mention the daily news, show that corruption has reached unprecedented heights under the US-Arroyo regime.<br><br>
Evil is definitely at work in Malacaņang. With untold billions of tongpats in its coffers, it can afford to dole out hundreds of thousands of pesos for politicians and generals in exchange for their rabid loyalty and support. The Arroyo gang is a ruthless manipulator of public perception through the devious use of the mass media. It distorts the truth and hides behind a faįade of "walks of unity" and paid "praise releases." It bandies about the rule of law, but is the first to violate and twist the law to suit its whims and interests.<br><br>
In declaring their support for a corrupt, despised, and illegal president, the Cordillera politicians are misrepresenting their constituents. They showed no guts in the face of Arroyo's carrot and stick approach (the carrot being dole-out projects and the stick being the denial of such projects). They are witting accomplices and collaborators in covering up the truth and trying to deodorize the Arroyo regime's rank corruption. A case in point is the shameless declaration of Cong. Mauricio Domogan when Malacaņang doled out cash gifts to local government officials last October, "Diay naawat mi a kuarta ket alawans mi a kongresman daydiay." To which the people indignantly replied, "Alawans nga? Ulbod!"<br>
The advertisements of support for Gloria "Makapal" Arroyo and her tottering regime are farcical and hollow.<br><br>
We challenge the government officials and employees to join the Filipino people in further unmasking the systemic corruption in government. We enjoin the Cordillerans to discern the truth and demand the ouster of the Arroyo regime.<br><br>
<blockquote><small>email: kafiliw@gmail.com</small></blockquote>$$$$$