Lack of campaign funds big problem

MOST of the 67,000 houses built for policemen and their dependents by the Aquino administration throughout the country have not been occupied.

P-Noy’s government wasted P16 billion for the housing project.

The houses are so small they look like they were built for pigeons.

The pigeon houses project is not surprising because many officials in the Aquino administration have the brains of pigeons.

* * *

Monday was the 71st birthday of Davao City Mayor and presidential candidate Rody Duterte.

As in past years, Duterte didn’t celebrate his natal day; he went into seclusion.

But his close friends, on their own, sponsored a party for young cancer patients.

Duterte once told me he didn’t want to throw  a party on his birthday because he didn’t want to receive gifts from well-wishers.

“I don’t want to embarrass people who would want to give me gifts because I won’t accept their presents,” he said.

* * *

Duterte’s no-gifts policy on his birthday has spilled over to his campaign for the presidency: He doesn’t solicit contributions.

That’s the reason he is saddled with the problem of lack of campaign funds.

Duterte has politely turned down offers of financial contributions from some big businesses whose establishments hire contractual workers.

One of Duterte’s campaign promises is to eliminate the practice of many business establishments of hiring employees on a contractual basis.

Under contractualization, a worker’s contract expires every six months and the company has the option not to rehire him.

“I pity contractual workers because they don’t have security of tenure,” Duterte told me.

* * *

I asked the Davao City mayor how he could sustain his campaign until May 9, election day, without money.

He needs at least 10 watchers per precinct on election day, and there are 95,500 clustered precincts throughout the country.

If each watcher is given P200 for lunch and dinner—and this is a small amount—he would spend at least P1.9 billion on May 9 alone.

Duterte doesn’t have that amount; he doesn’t even have enough money for TV and radio commercials.

He said he leaves his fate to God and the voters.

* * *

I’ve never endorsed a presidential candidate before as strongly as I do now.

Neither have I intensely campaigned for any presidential aspirant before.

Why am I doing it now and courting the displeasure of my editors and publisher of the Inquirer?

It’s not because Duterte is my friend; it’s because he’s the only candidate who has put a timetable to stop crime and the spread of drugs: six months or less.

As a former police reporter, I know how serious the problems of crime and drugs are.

If we don’t solve those twin problems now, we might end up like Colombia and Mexico where drug syndicates are feared by their governments instead of the other way around.

*  * *

Businessman Kim Wong is scheduled to testify today (Tuesday) at the Senate blue ribbon committee which is investigating the $81-million money laundering case.

Wong told me he would not withhold information when he appears before  the committee.

I’ve known Wong since I was a police reporter at  Manila Bulletin in 1978.

Back then Wong, only 16, was an errand boy of a girlie bar in Ermita, Manila, which I used to frequent.

One remarkable thing about Kim was his honesty; he never told a lie, according to his boss.

Many years later, when he and I became partners in a restaurant business, I found that he has retained this quality.

There’s a Filipino saying that a liar is brother to a thief.

If that is true, then Kim didn’t have anything to do with the $81-million theft from the Bangladesh central bank.