Senator Cynthia Villar. SCREENGRAB from INQUIRER.net FILE VIDEO
Even Senator Cynthia Villar, the richest member of the Senate, is feeling the burden of paying the rising cost of electricity and other bills as she lamented the government’s inaction to ease the suffering of poor Filipinos.
READ: Cynthia Villar is richest senator, Trillanes ‘poorest’
“Hindi naman ako mahirap na tao pero bigat na bigat na ako sa electricity, bigat na bigat na ako sa aking communication bill, bigat na bigat na kami sa water bill (I’m not really poor but I find the electricity bill burdensome as well as the communication and water bills),” Villar said during the hearing of the Senate committee on public services on the proliferation of text scams in the country.
“Nagtitiis na rin kami. Anong magagawa mo e monopoly yan. Wala na tayong magagawa dyan. Hindi na natin malaman kung papano magtitipid… (We endure as well. What can you do? It’s a monopoly. There is nothing we can do about that. We don’t know how to save…)” she said.
READ: Villar chides NTC for failure to stop text scam proliferation
Villar expressed her sentiments after scolding officials of the National Telecommunications Commission present in the hearing over their failure to stop the proliferation of the text scams that defraud consumers including her own foundation, the Villar Foundation Inc.
“Ako nga hindi pa ganun kahirap, hirap na hirap ako kung pano ibaba lahat (ng bills)…Pero it’s too much naman na after raising money to pay all these bills, you have to suffer pa yung ikaw ite-text scam ka pa…(Even if I’m not really poor, I find it difficult to lower the bills… But it’s too much that after raising money to pay all these bills, you still have to suffer because of text scams)” she said.
“Hindi nyo ba alam kung anong stress ang ibinibigay sa amin nun everyday? Hindi nyo ba nararamdaman yun, the stress that you’re causing us…?”
(Don’t you know the stress it causes us everyday? Don’t you feel it, the stress that you’re causing us…?)
“Kaya nga minsan naiinis ako. This government is just for the rich but not for the poor. Basta welfare ng poor wala namang mag iintindi sayo yun lang welfare lang ng rich ang iintindhin nila (That’s why sometimes I’m pissed off. This government is just for the rich but not for the poor. No one cares for the welfare of the poor, they only care for the welfare of the rich),” Villar added. Maila Ager/RAM