Kidneys, boners and the Philippine economy
Why 80 million Filipinos haven’t yet taken arms against this regime I don’t know.
Among its crimes against the people is its shameless effort to fool us even more into thinking that the economy is nothing but looking up. It has the gall to declare that for the first time in decades, the government will have a surplus of funds for social services and to pump prime the economy.
gma must be impossibly deluded to believe what she is saying. Just the other day, Channel 7 was carrying a story about many desperate Filipinos who felt they had no choice but to sell their body parts just to be able to put some food on the table. Kidneys for sale and available on order; paid donors lines as long as the Maharlika Highway. Last week, Channel 2 had this story about donors selling their bodily juice to blood banks as often as three times a week.
To think the funds she is talking about are additional loans from foreign governments. To be exultant over the fact that loan sharks will extract even more profits from the Philippines is sick!
By the way, 40 percent of said funds are sure to go down the drain, swallowed by the rapacious and insatiable hole of bureaucratic corruption. I heard traditional politicians had hard-ons when the news made the headlines this morning.
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I have been twice asked by our foreign volunteers what a monthly budget surplus means to the country.
If ever a question could get me stumped, it must about the economy. I flunked Economics 1 back in college (along with QC vice mayor Bistek Bautista who had the nasty habit of cribbing my answers during exams). Not wanting to appear stupid however, I would always venture answers and manage to sound stupid nonetheless.
I could never be as good a liar like gma or the other economists in the government like Romulo Neri, Rolando Andaya or Joey Salceda. But now, I have intelligent answers when asked about the economy. I just point to the many ambulant vendors on the road, the child beggars, the urban poor communities, and I turn my frayed and empty pockets inside out.
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Aside from biz gossips, I really do read the papers’ business sections.
Recently, some hacks have been pointing out that the peso has strengthened against the dollar and petrol prices have gone down.
Hooray!
If only the prices of basic goods have correspondingly gone down, wages increased, social services made more available, the EVAT scrapped, maniniwala na sana ako.
The government’s apologists would come in at this point and say the hoped for benefits would take some time to take effect.
E, tang-na! ilang taon na ba yang si gloria sa palasyo? Ilang dekada na bang ganito ang sistema ng bansa? Kelan pa ba tayo giginhawa?
Why 80 million Filipinos haven’t yet taken arms against this regime I don’t know.
