“What Aquino and his budget secretary Florencio Abad have done is merely to have the legislators list the local projects they want before the budget is enacted into law, and pretend that NGOs and local governments proposed these projects in assemblies in cities and municipalities. Have you, dear reader, heard of such assembly in your city or town? The new pork-barrel system amounting to P20.9 billion plus the P37.3 billion in lump-sum funds, which Santiago exposed, total P58.2 billion in pork-barrel funds – an astronomical sum compared with the P5 billion annual average since Aquino’s mother Cory instituted it in 1990 as the “Countrywide Development Fund.” Such magnitude is necessary because of the fact, as Santiago alleged, that the funds could be used in the 2016 elections: Some to build up patronage and some to skim off for campaign expenses. Aren’t the rest of the senators shamed by Santiago’s exposé, made at the most difficult time of her life when she should be at home with her family or in some hospital to make sure her stage-four lung cancer doesn’t get worse? Aquino’ three stooges – senators Antonio Trillanes, Alan Cayetano and Koko Pimentel have spent most of this year leaving no stone unturned for them to claim that Vice President Jejomar Binay is corrupt and, therefore, shouldn’t consider running for president. They must have spent months poring over probably fake documents their obviously mercenary witness showed them. And they haven’t studied the most important piece of legislation the Senate passes ever year – the General Appropriations Law? Never mind, of course, the three jailbirds — Enrile, Estrada, and Revilla: You can’t fault them for thinking now of nothing but how to get out of jail. Never mind Aquino’s political lieutenant, Senate President Drilon, who is battling for the first time in his life serious corruption charges, and those two kids, Sonny Angara and Bam Aquino (include there JV Ejercito) as they were just asked by their elders to fill up the Senate seats. Forget Chiz Escudero, who’s busy with his wedding-of-the-year preparations and who seems to be more interested in a movie career if some film company would just give him a break, and Teofisto Guingona 3rd, who oddly with his “what-me-worry?” smile seems to be absent-minded in most Senate sessions. But what happened to the senators we would have thought had the brains, independence and courage to protest this ignominy that is the 2015 budget – the economist Ralph Recto, the level-headed Sergio Osmena, the once swashbuckling Greg Honasan, the business-minded Cynthia Villar and the mestiza Grace Poe? Nancy Binay should be told she is not in the senate just to defend her father while Ferdinand Marcos Jr. should remember his father was a studious, bold opposition leader at least for a time. Are Loren Legarda and Pia Cayetano still senators? HISTORY WILL CONDEMN THE 16TH CONGRESS AS THE WORST EVER — AQUINO’S RUBBER STAMP, ESPECIALLY FOR THE 2015 BUDGET. IT WILL CELEBRATE, THOUGH, THE HEROISM AND AUDACITY OF SANTIAGO, THE ONLY SENATOR WHO, DESPITE HER STAGE-FOUR CANCER, DID HER SWORN DUTY AS A PUBLIC SERVANT AND STOOD UP TO PROTEST AQUINO’S MOST CORRUPTED BUDGET.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 01:06:28 +0000
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