leeching on our miseries

they are vultures, actually.
feeding on other people's miseries, helplessness, needs. armed with an endless supply of taxpayers' money sourced from the pork barrel funds, a mechanism that was put in placed with good intentions but has been abused, misused and corrupted in so many forms and permutations that the original authors of such law may no longer recognize its current state, nay may even deny that they were ever the brains of such a scheme.
i don't know why or how it started that people (not only the poor, mind you) in this country viewed politicians as sort of a santa claus or an angel, their dark knights, who can solve their problems, end their miseries, help them have a better life. such mindset only benefited the politicians, especially those who don't have the interest of the public at heart, because that is how patronage is born. that is how they cultivate loyalty, that is how they plant the seeds that will blossom into a vote-rich and captured constituency.
have you ever wonder why some local government politicians cuddle those informal settlers and squatters with their make-shift homes and filthy surroundings? wonder no more. they are the easiest ones to buy. and cheap too. my apologies.

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you need some money to pay for your medical operation? tuition fee? celebration of the fiesta? let's go to the mayor's, governor's, congressman's or senator's office. you want to become powerful and influential too without necessarily running for a public office (it's too expensive, you know. too much work as well), then let's just ask these politicians to be the godfather/godmother of our child, sponsor in our wedding, or better yet, become his mistress or marry one of his/her children.
yes, these are stuffs that those stupid teleseryes have made famous on the idiot box. but they're as real as the air you breathe every millisecond.

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i don't know which one is worse. those lazy, poor and therefore helpless constituents who turn to their politicians for money instead of working their asses off, or those vultures living in gated subdivisions with uniformed drivers and maids who cuddle these greedy bastards?
like neo at the start of matrix, i, too, am perplexed.

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the president has been adamant about abolishing the pork barrel funds (or chopping the pork as the rallyists calling for its abolition cried on monday's march at the luneta park) in the budget. understandably so, because the pork helps the chief executive gain support for his pet laws that are gathering dusts in the archives of congress. but if you really have the heart for public service and therefore the support of the people, why be afraid at all?
also, the president surely has more bullets in his armory aside from dangling the pork to get his way past those greedy lawmakers who are there just to enrich themselves.

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it's a good job, actually being a politician. first, you don't need a high school or a college diploma. you don't need a brain. you don't need talents nor experience. as long as you have the pedigree, the right family name, the connections, and in the case of a few artistas, the looks and star factor, then your chances of winning a public office is high. then once elected, you don't even have to show up in the office everyday, you don't have to work a day in your life, but you are guaranteed millions in your bank accounts every month.
it's like winning the lotto, or having several billions in trust funds.
there are other perks too: you don't ever have to ride and join other sweaty, smelly, untidy commuters in buses, jeepneys or trains. you don't have to line-up at the immigration when flying; you go straight to the vip lounge. you don't have to worry about being held-up or having your bag snatched because you have an army of tacky body guards -- with their greasy hair, dark shades, pants and leather shoes, walkie-talkies, and freshly-ironed barong tagalogs -- watching your every move with hawkish eyes. you don't need to worry about floods, too, a regular occurrence in metro manille, because you live in flood-free mansions or apartment buildings, ride on suvs or helicopters.
what's more: you don't have to pay for anything. let the taxpayers shoulder your and your family's expenses that include shopping for lvs, hermes, rls in new york, london or milan, buying flats in exclusive and pricey apartments in manhattan, vacations in the hamptons and venice, and a lot more.
so wonder no more if most of these politicians are turning "public service" into a family business.  as though it's their family's divine right to stay in power forever; as though they are monarchs descended from europe of old.

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as a street-smart colleague used to tell me: saan ka pa?!
indeed.

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so while ninety percent of filipinos can barely make it in life, others living on the streets looking and smelling worse than a stray dog or cat, these privileged few soulless creatures are rolling in dough. literally and figuratively.

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just a bit curious though.
where is their conscience? don't they or their children (or their friends who also benefit from the largesse) ever feel guilty about spending stolen money?
and even more important. who is their god?
is there a god especially for their kind?

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but hopefully, all of these will end. even their gods are tired of their greed. the people, too, are slowly waking up from their deep sleep, like snow white minus her prince, and are crying for justice. it's no longer just enough to "moderate their greed," but rather, to stop it all together.
we have had enough of these vultures and leeches.

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i rest my case.
sorry, mahatma gandah has been carried away. again.
that's what you get for not being able to shop, dine and wine more often than you should because of the absence of a steady monthly paycheck. (her trust funds are either frozen or had run out!)
chos!!!!
(please watch out for madam m.'s take on the pork barrel scam. let's hear it from the expert next time.)
babush!