Money Matters

Money is the root of all evil.

We’ve heard that adage time and time again. We, in the Philippines, know that for a fact. Year after year, our government is plagued with intrigues and controversies. The beginning of a new regime brings with it a new set of troubles that does nothing more than tear our country’s image into tatters, making each and every citizen slowly lose hope that someday it will get better; that we shall all arise from this a better nation than what we were before. We can dream, but in our hearts we know that it’s a long shot.

These anomalous issues that are popping up all have one thing in common – money. To be more exact: tax payers’ money. A professor of mine at college once said, tax laws in the Philippines are very good. Yeah, you might say that. The amount of taxes we pay is enough to strangle every ordinary citizen. Whereas before we are living on a tight budget, now we have to tighten it a bit more after paying our respective tax dues. And to top it all of, prices of basic goods such as rice, bread, canned goods, pork, beef, and etc. are rising. Is there no end to this?

My point is this – we pay the government with taxes which, quite frankly, are so high that we barely have enough left to spend for our own basic needs. If that’s the case, then the country’s budget is a ridiculously large amount that our government can use for the betterment of this nation. But where has all that money gone? Our country’s sure as hell not getting any better.

There are still roads that are not fully cemented. Sure, what’s so different about that? Maybe that project just hasn’t been approved yet. Yeah, right! There are roads that are cemented, it then ends into a rough and rocky path, and then another cemented stretch begins anew…. Question: Why not just finish the whole damned stretch of road? Is the budget allotted only enough for segments? It’s a joke that’s what it is. We are slowly becoming one of the laughingstocks in the world, if we are not it yet already.

The latest issue that has surfaced these past few days is the almost Php800,000 unaccounted funds which was supposedly for the Swine Program of Quedancor. Where then did this money go? There’s no paper trail. Very fishy, isn’t it? Was it used to fatten pigs, or was it used to fatten a pig’s bank account? If the money was indeed distributed to farmers to help them, there should be some documentation but sadly there has been none. I’m sure the people involved in this scandal are still inventing pitiful excuses. Ugh, I’m quite disgusted!