sarap maging senador!

[pawsacat]

Got this from an email and I'm not sure if it's true. Sometimes you'd really wonder why they (including actors and now even boxers) are all scrambling for a seat in the senate or Congress... I also got disappointed upon hearing my uncle (a former politician during FVRs time) that the election is just a formality... actually the persons to occupy the seats have been drawn up, meaning the counting/ballots etc will either be padded, manipulated, in other words, rigged... He just said that we should protect our votes... but how on earth could we do that if we can't even trust the watchers or organizers!!! And now the electorate have also become lukewarm about the whole thing, only a few are concerned... My friends wouldn't even care to vote because of the corruption issue. My prof told us last term that we should practice our right and be responsible citizens, now I don't know if that is being idealistic given the current circumstances or being sensible knowing that it is our future that we are trying to secure...

Why politicians become corrupt


THE irrepressible Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago came out with the
reason for the mad rush for Senate seats, making them throw away millions, or rather hundreds of millions of pesos, just to be elected.

People have always wondered: How in the world can anybody spend hundreds
of millions of pesos for a position that yields only a monthly salary of
P35,000 Indeed, there must be something about a Senate seat. Is it really just public service, or is there something more?

Consider this: The spending limit for a senatorial candidate is P225
million, or P5 per registered voter. And there are more than 45 million
registered voters.

Read this: Apart from the monthly P35,000 salary for a senator, there is
a fixed monthly budget of P1.7 million for office and staff expenses, and
an additional P760,000 in foreign travel and additional perks.

Listen to this: Some senators hardly travel abroad. When they do, they
do not only use the travel budget. They ask for more, even pocket money.
And they bring their spouses and children, secretaries and girlfriends,
doctors or even yayas.

And how's this? Each senator gets P793,000 a month for staff salaries
and another P998,000 for office expenses such as rentals, utilities,
supplies and domestic travel.

If a senator is a committee chairman, he or she gets a similar budget of
what she gets as a regular senator. And there is no rule requiring
senators to return the money that has not been used. This means they have the option of pocketing the excess cash.

Do we wonder then why people are just so eager to be senators? It beats
winning a casino jackpot or winning a lottery-it's all tax-free.

Now read this and weep: Above all the things I just mentioned, a senator
is given P200 million out of the P1.71 billion Senate budget under the
General Appropriations Act.

Santiago speaks of 10 percent kickback from public works contractor to
be given awards for infrastructure and from other awarded contracts for
livelihood projects, social services, like health and education. Miriam
is being conservative. The usual kickback given goes as high as 30 to 40
percent for contracts pinpointed by members of Congress.
Do you understand now why everybody wants to be a lawmaker? And why
candidates will do everything, including spending money as though it
were going out of style, just to get elected?

Doleouts to favored people are also unaudited. They are running for
public service because their hearts bleed for the poor and needy? Aw, come on, don't give me that BS.
They run because there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, all at
the expense of the Filipino people.
***
We come to the issue of politicians' tendency to be corrupt. Now I talk
of those running for local positions, like mayors, governors and
congressmen. Visit these politicians early in the morning, and you see hundreds of people lining up, waiting for the official to wake up so that they canask him for doleouts. Money with which to travel to Manila, to treat a sick
son or wife, to send a son or daughter to school, to cover burial expenses,
to furnish the basketball team with uniforms, and so on.

Santa Banana, the needs of the people are endless. They all expect a
congressman, governor or mayor to solve all their problems. And where do you think these politicians will get all the money asked from them? From overpriced government contracts, from kickbacks, from the P70-million pork barrel of members of Congress, from overpriced school supplies that a congressman or a governor awards for public school and from payrolls of ghost employees. And from so many other scams nationwide.

There's a Metro Manila mayor, for instance, who has hundreds, if not
thousands in his "15-30" payroll, who collect them only on the 15th and
30th of every month, but whose mission is for each of them to take care
of every 50 families in their barangays. Neat, huh? No wonder he's always
re-elected. I say that if politicians become corrupt, blame the people who expect them to dole out patronage to them. It's a symbiotic thing-the people seeking doleouts and the politicians expecting their support when election time comes. And that comes every three years.

That's why I say that we expect the kind of public officials we
elect-public officials who are not only hypocrites who cry out to high
heavens that they only want to serve, but are in fact corrupt.
That is the anatomy of corruption in the Philippines.