‘Law of the stomach’ as tradition
“It is honored by tradition,” Sen. Edgardo Angara stressed. He meant Senate President Juan Ponce’s Enrile’s “Christmas gifts” of P1.6 million each to 18 “friendly” senators”, including Angara. At year’s end, Enrile ladled “maintenance and other operating expenditures” (MOOE) savings. Why did it ignite today’s brawl?
“Tradition is a guide, not a jailer,” Somerset Maugham cautions. So, what is this customary practice that all-too-willing legislators swear by yet left some fuming? Enrile doled P250,000 of our tax money as “Christmas “cash gift” for Senators Miriam Santiago, Antonio Trillanes, Pia and Alan Cayetano. They protested “uneven” distribution of the cash”, Angara claims. Would everyone zipper lips if traditional equal slabs were sliced?
“Tradition teaches one how to act, pray and work,” sings Teyve in the 1964 Broadway play Fiddler on the Roof. “And where did tradition come from? I will tell you….Ah, ah, ah. I don’t know. But it’s a tradition. And without tradition, our lives are as shaky as a fiddler on the roof.”
Between 1981 to 1987, Angara was senate president. Did he ring in the new year by fiddling MOOE at quarter of midnight in the old year? “I must have,” he allows. “But I don’t recall.” He wasn’t aware his office received a gift-wrapped P1.6 million MOOE. Really? “MOOE is used for day-to-day expenses, like office supplies, rentals, electricity – and “coffee for guests.”
Is Senate coffee like Pagcor brew? President Benigno Aquino revealed that the Philippine Amusement & Gaming Corp. billed taxpayers P1,007,408,908, for brewing 10 million cups of coffee. The number of ill-fed underweight children in that period increased to 3.3 million “I like my coffee strong, not lethal!” cracks the army doctor’s Ring Lardner’s satirical movie “MASH”.
In a Radyo Inquirer interview, Senator Santiago revealed that she lobbed the check back to Enrile. She skewered parceling additional MOOE in December. “All official transactions of the Senate are completed by then.” Was it “tradition” to scrimp during the year then splurge at yearend?,TV’s.Karen Davila persisted.
“That’s my point!”, snapped the senator who busted an eye blood vessel.. “On Christmas you give… savings to keep them quiet? Discretionary funds should be spent for public purposes…You give a senator a cash gift of ( P1.6 ) million. That senator will produce a paper saying the money was for public purpose but actually pocketed it… This ‘racket’ is practiced in the Senate”. Other agencies, not allowed by law to realign savings”, mimic legislators.
“The less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder to get rid of it,” Mark Twain notes. The gap of doles between those who curtsy to Enrile and those who refuse, stinks. Ordinary employees, in contrast, are dunned for getting bonuses in excess of the P10,000 maximum allowable.
But the core scandal festers at a deeper level. Through budget law provisions they crafted, legislators authorize themselves to realign and feather their nests. Metro Manila Waterwork officials gave themselves bonuses equivalent to 26 months salary. That’s theft. When senators gorge on MOOE, that’s “tradition”?
When Ferdinand Marcos entered Malacanang, there were 37 government owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) This ballooned to 303, before People Power toppled the Marcos dictatorship. GOCC profligacy burned 28 centaoves out of every tax peso. Most operated as fiefdoms. Social Security System officials feathered their nests with stock options.
President Corazon Aquino pruned GOCCs back to 157. Cory Aquino’s son took the second step to curb corporate plunder. On June 6, 2011, President Benigno Aquino signed the GOCC Governance Act. Sen. Franklin Drilon shepherded Senate Bill 2640 into RA10149. The new law creates in effect a Securities and Exchange Commission for GOCCs.
Today, five commissioners oversee GOCCs worth P5 trillion – more than double the P2.87 trillion for rest of government. Their subsidies ballooned from P9.064 billion in 2000 to P53.705 billion in 2011. That straddles President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s tenure. Gloria who?
“There has been a paradigm shift,” notes former Philippine Stock Exchange president Francis Lim .The GOCC Act is the first best thing that happened to our GOCC system under the current administration… The next best thing is… the President chose the right persons as commissioners. In the first 200 days, the commission documented reforms from operating manuals for GOCCs to rulings on nearly 60 bids for per diem entitlements.
“There’s one very big rub” Inquirer’ Conrad de Quiros notes. Immoral, unjust, obscene midnight realignments are also perfectly legal. Legislators wrote into the law that they may distribute amounts to their people as they please from their savings. “Someone like Enrile decides to play Santa Claus with your money, you can’t fight it legally, short of fighting to amend or scrap the law itself.”
Massive corruption is sanctioned by self serving law. Embedded by long practice, it calcified into tradition. Fraud sanctified by tradition remains fraud. Our parents had an apt word for such edicts: Ley del estomago. “Law of the stomach” results in 45 percent of kids dying before reaching age 5. Taxpayers must stomp on Congress’ structured plunder. “Tradition without intelligence is not worth having”, TS Eliot writes.
