While Others Toil

The GOCCs really are the luckiest bunch of them all. P-Noy's expose on the lavish lives of the officials and the employees of MWSS is a great example of the disparity even in government. I'm sure those in NAPOCOR fairs even better. I could almost see the distraught faces of public school teachers and even health workers. What did these people do to deserve so many benefits. I don't see the logic behind the inequity in the same government.

Teachers have low pay, poor benefits (even the GSIS stole from them) and very long working hours. Our public health workers share the same fate. In their hands are the education and health of our nation. While those in the MWSS and NAPPOCOR are bestowed with so many perks despite being remiss in their jobs. How can they then justify the benefits their receive? The MWSS employees even have their own subdivision. And these people have the temerity to feel bad because they were singled out? Ang kakapal ng mga mukha niyo!

Habang kukuyakuyakoy kayo sa mga malalamig niyong opisina, our teachers endure hot and crowded classrooms. They are burdened with loans because their low salary isn't enough to support their families. They do not have a place to call their own while La Mesa Heights have huge three-storey houses. Do MWSS employees go through the same rigorous training and education our teachers and health workers go through to get their licenses and certificates? I doubt if they do.

While others toil to make ends meet, these lucky ones have grocery allowances, mid-year and end-year bonuses. Hell, they even have productivity bonuses despite the water crisis. They even have reimbursements for their expenses. They even have an anniversary bonus! The MWSS should be closed down. It should be just a small department in the DPWH. Nothing will justify the the perks these people get at the taxpayers expense.

I hope P-Noy does the moral thing and teach these people a lesson. While they bask in the sunshine, our teachers and health workers slave in the shadows of despair.

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Nagsusumiksik!

The party-list 1-UTAK has announced that they are dropping Angelo Reyes as their nominee for congress. I saw a defiant Reyes on TV and I don't think he's going down without a fight. I guess now Reyes feels how Erap felt when he abandoned Erap back in '01. Hasn't Reyes had enough? I'm sure he has put away a sizable retirement. What is it he wants that he is forcing himself to a group that no longer wants him?

He revealed that interest groups in the party wants him out. At least the one who wants to represent 1-UTAK is a true bus operator and not an impostor like him Reyes has yet to secure a COMELEC proclamation. And last Thursday, he was informed by the house SG that he should present the pertinent documents before being allowed in congress. Poor Angie, he's been hanged to dry.

I recall Reyes bullying anyone and everyone who questioned him during his term as DOE secretary. Not even Ralph Recto was spared as he served as both spokesman and lawyer of the oil companies. Humility was never in his vocabulary. Now that the 1-UTAK party-list that he thought would be his ticket to congress has dropped him, he has nowhere to go. I don't know how he'll bully his way to congress. I hope he gets the message. Kung ayaw na sa'yo, huwag ka nang magsumiksik!

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Wating for the Big Day

Monday will be a big day. P-Noy will be having his first SONA. This early, hints of what it would contain have been circulating. P-Noy will be revealing the devastation the Arroyo administration left behind its wake. From the depletion of our coffers to the complete erosion of our country's institutions. The nation awaits if Gloria will show her face and try to put on a brave face while P-Noy enumerates and describe how GMA raped the country during her nine long years in the palace. We've heard time and again the many scandals GMA and cohorts were involved in. Perhaps P-Noy's people have unearthed several more.

Knowing GMA, she may skip the SONA. She hates being put on the spot especially since she and her gang have come out with books and commercials that protray her and her administration as unquestionable public servants. So far, we are still feeling the repercussions of their criminal acts. We have yet to feel the actual effects of the devastation they have left behind.

Should she be thick-faced enough and attend, I could almost see her smirk, squirm and even break into a wry smile as if to taunt and belittle the new president. I'm sure P-Noy will be civil but will not hold anything back just so that the true picture of our nation's true state be known. So far, the only thing we know is how huge our deficit is. I won't be shocked anymore of what else P-Noy will reveal.

We have not seen the end of the Arroyo's. Iggy is still around. Dato, thanks to the creation of another district is still in congress. We all know how the COMELEC showed its stupdity an allowed the multi-millionaire Mikey to represent the marginalized. And finally, Gloria is also in congress. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse still wields power. I just hope ti's not enough to bring us back to the dark ages.

The day of reckoning is on Monday. Wahtever P-Noy will be saying, I'll definitely be watching the SONA.

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Jueteng Is Here To Stay

With the power down, I had the rare chance to exchange pleasantries with my neighbors. I found out that one is a "kobrador" in our area, Yes Jueteng does exist even in Metro Manila. One neighbor asked him how they'll deal with PNoy's marching orders for DILG Sec. Jesse Robredo? He painfully replied that their "intelligencia" will surely increase. Intelligencia is the bribe they give to PNP officials that protect their operations. Being the ones who implement the law, the police are at the forefront of protecting jueteng.

PNoy's directive will surely go to waste. I abhor gambling in any form and I don't even play Lotto. So I told myself that jueteng will continue and that all PNoy will be getting are fictitious reports from police officials. My neighbor is very sure that the police will surely ask for more to turn a blind eye. At present, three draws are played everyday in my area. With all the informal settlers here, they are making a killing. He's now wonder9ing how high the bribe would be since PNoy wants jueteng eradicated.

I guess jueteng is just too established that even Sec. Robredo will have a hard time stopping it. So how do we really finally kill jueteng? We've tried small town lottery (STL). We all know how it was used and abused by unscrupulous local and police officials. The problems lies not with the operators or the officials, the problem are those who patronize it. I'm sure the juetueng lords will be increasing the minimum bet to cover the bribes they'll be paying to the police. They are more hungry than the local execs.

PNOy and Robredo will never be able to eradicate jueteng. I don't thingkGod himself will be able to as well. How I wish people would stop patronizing jueteng. I guess I'm wishing too much. Filipinos just love to gamble. They don't care even if they gamble all their earnings away. It saddens me to finally admit that jueteng is here to stay.

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The Complainer

Even my good friend Manolo "The Explainer" Quezon will have a hard time explaining to Binay what the VP's role is. Binay still so intoxicated with his new found position may have thought that the vice president wields the same power, enjoys the same privileges, shares the national treasury and can have what he wants whenever he wants it. With just a week as VP, he has been complaining (bitching) about everything.

He finds his office as too small and wants to move into the Coconut Palace. He also finds his office's budget of P187 million too small. He even adds that his budget as Makati mayor is far higher than this. Eh kung bumalik ka na lang sa Makati? By far, Binay is the only VP who finds things to bitch about. May I remind you sir that I am your boss. I can only feed my family dried fish everyday, I don't think you should ask me to feed you steak. Di ka ba nahihiya sa akin? Maybe I should slap you around just to knock some sympathy in you.

Like a family on a very tight budget, you must learn to live with what you have. Please show me anything in the constitution that says that I should give you a life far better than mine? You are the one who wanted to run for office to serve us. We did not force you. Perhaps you don't feel what the rest of us feels? You have no right to complain because you don't experience the hardships we experience everyday. How can you be an example for the people to follow? Do you want us to rave and rant like you? Nine years under Gloria is too much for us. Here you are as if telling us that we should give you anything you ask for? Serve us first and maybe, just maybe we'll give you a raise.

"Si Binay lang ang gaganda ang buhay"

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Snakes and Ladders

After the elections, I expected the cracks in the Aquino camp to show. Well it did. Sadly it showed the true colors of those with vested interests. Even the Johnnies-come-lately had things to say. I must admit, nawalan ako ng gana. To see people speak as if they had been in the fight since the very start. It was truly like the game, Snakes and Ladders. The snakes squirmed their way in to dump Mar Roxas and use the Noynoy magic to push for Binay. Binay may have been a staunch Arroy critic but I still think that principles should come first.

Now they're all trying to climb the ladder to get their "manoks" in place. I hope they can remind themselves that Noynoy is also a member of a political party. I also thought we campaigned for a team that would work together. How wrong can I be. I believed that everyone was working for a common cause. I thought we were all advocates of change. Obviously some supported Noynoy for personal gain. They had an agenda, they were after power and influence.

Napaso ako talaga. And the snakes worked both camps to put their man in place. Why should I believe their flimsy claim that Binay had been opposition since the very beginning? Binay an advocate of change? What a lot of bull. He did not even have the decency to ask his children to stay out of politics.He is a trapo in every sense of the word. Those who said that Noynoy is surrounded by trapos should have known this. It stuck out like a sore thumb. At the end of the day, it bolied down to who would give the power and influence they sought.

Good that their "manok" has been put in the freezer. Despite lobbying for a position in the DILG, Binay and his backers failed to get the president to appoint him. It's nice to see them fail in their bid to get their man into any position. I did my best to give my share to getting Noynoy elected. Whether he thanked me or not doesn't really matter to me. I gave even if he didn't ask. I am not expecting anything in return. All I ask is for him to keep his promises to the people.

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