‘The new Senate building is an ideal campaign platform for anyone who wishes to argue that politics as we know it has got to end…’
I HAD my driver’s license renewed yesterday at the LTO office at Circuit Makati. The absence of long lines made me complete the process within an hour of my arrival there. (Circuit Makati is the old Santa Ana racetrack that Ayala has converted into a mall and some condos).
I was told by my officemate and companion Ryan Linao that the LTO office is a franchise; franchise or not I recommend it to anyone who needs to have a license renewed and wishes to avoid the long lines of the traditional LTO offices.
Part of the renewal is a health check — weight, height, eyesight and blood pressure. I found out that I was heavier than I thought I was, as tall as I thought I was, had a right eye that was not as sharp as the left, and blood pressure that was relatively under control (thanks to Mercury Drug, if you know what I mean).
Actually, the BP reading was a pleasant surprise but it didn’t last long. On the drive back to the office, Ryan and I began talking about politics and when our chat shifted to the unfinished Senate building in Taguig I could feel my BP hitting the (car) roof!
The whole mess that the new Senate building has disappeared from the front pages of our newspapers. On social media, people are more concerned with taking sides regarding the Yulo family drama. But we know which of the two has a far deeper meaning to our lives, yes?
We do, yes?
It is clear, at least to me, that the new Senate office building, if reports are to be believed, has grown from an P8 billion project to a P20 billion (and counting) project and is the perfect epitome of what is wrong with government management of projects and project funds. And with what is wrong with how we, the tax-paying public, react to how our monies are spent or misspent — we don’t.
But here right in front of our faces is the latest and most recent example — a building that will house 24 legislators is now costing us close to P1 billion per legislator!
Had this whole project been a private sector project, and had the senators implementing the project been, say, the management team responsible for it, they’d all have been fired by the stockholders and perhaps even sued if an investigation would show that they’ve played loose with the funds.
However, we tax-paying citizens do not see ourselves as “stockholders” in a “corporation” who have a right to demand a proper accounting of our funds. We don’t worry about the “value” of our “shareholdings” that are depleted year in and year out by mismanagement such as this.
And yet, answer me this: show me a legislator who has become poorer after years of “service” to the people. It’s a “thankless job,” we are always told.
The new Senate building is an ideal campaign platform for anyone who wishes to argue that politics as we know it has got to end, that “for the people” is more like “from the people,” that the country we all love should be far more progressive if we as stockholders only chose better.
I know I’m dreaming, and I know I need to bring my BP down a few notches again.
It’s time to focus on the Yulos.
