Let the dynasty giants come to blows

The 2025 national budget is laden with huge chunks of pork barrel, no doubt about it. The veto made by President Marcos is meaningless because it does not plug the humongous loopholes that allow senators and congresspersons to dip their hands into sizeable lumps of the budget, at the expense of health care and education.

As denounced by former finance undersecretary Cielo Magno, it’s a budget that’s shamelessly “propoliticians and anti-people.” Three portions of the budget will be subject to barefaced abuse by lawmakers.

First, are the increases in the budgets of both houses of Congress. For the House of Representatives, from an originally proposed budget of P16.3 billion, it ballooned to an approved budget of P33.67, or a whopping increase of P17 billion. For the Senate, from a proposed budget of P12.83 billion it was inflated to P13.93 billion, or an increase of P1.0 billion. What life and death emergency is faced by Congress that justifies it to increase the money in its pocket, at a time when the country is constantly unable to raise adequate income to pay for our yearly expenses? What crisis is faced by Congress that is far more important than the life-impeding conditions beleaguering our people on their education and health needs?

Second, our lawmakers have set aside a humongous amount of P53 billion which they will use as dole-outs to buy patronage from the poor. These are the P9.5 billion for the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS), the P26 billion for the Ayuda Para sa Kapos Ang Kita Program (Akap), and the P18.289 billion for the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers Program (Tupad). The Department of Social Welfare and Development (which administers AICS and Akap) and the Department of Labor and Employment (which oversees Tupad), are making avowals that they distribute these assistance funds in earnest. But ask any beneficiary of these programs and they will tell you that the DSWD and DOLE can only prequalify applicants. One needs the final blessing of lawmakers to be recipients of these funds. The lawmakers will be personally present during the fund distribution and they strut as if these ayudas are coming from their own pockets.

Third, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) budget has been bloated by almost P289 billion. Public works projects that will be implemented in each congressional district will need the indispensable blessing of the incumbent lawmaker. Everyone knows that one cannot obtain such blessing by merely kneeling and doing the sign of the cross.

Our 2025 budget shows that the Marcos administration is not on legacy mode but on survival mode. The government is giving lawmakers the funds to buy votes in the coming elections. In turn, it’s a stratagem that enables the Marcos administration to buy the loyalty and votes of lawmakers.

The Marcos administration is on survival mode because it’s engaged in a dynasty war against the Dutertes. If the Marcoses fail to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte, the Dutertes will still have a chance of capturing the presidency in 2028. Every citizen disappointment that builds up on the Marcoses can potentially make voters pine for the return of the Dutertes. The Dutertes will ride on any scandal that will worsen people’s disappointment on the Marcoses.

We have a Marcos administration that will distribute aid to the poor, nominally to help the poor, but principally to buy the loyalty of lawmakers and the votes of its citizens. We have a Duterte camp that condemns the wrongdoings of the Marcoses, nominally to posture as fiscalizer, but principally to grab back power.

We have the Marcoses who want to impeach and criminally prosecute the Dutertes, nominally because the Dutertes are really guilty of heinous crimes, but principally because the former doesn’t want the Dutertes to have their day of vengeance. Additionally, the Marcoses want to perpetuate themselves in power, either by themselves or through their chosen successor. We have a Duterte camp that wants to oust the Marcos administration from power, nominally because of the wrongdoings of the latter, but principally because it wants power back and it salivates for vengeance.

We have well-meaning citizens who are furious at the rampant corruption of the Marcos administration, but if they deliver unrestrained punches against latter, they may unwittingly help the blood-thirsty Dutertes return to power. The same well-intentioned citizens ardently want the impeachment and prosecution of the Dutertes, but in their zeal to make their wish come true, they may enable the Marcos administration to engage in massive corruption.

So what should well-meaning citizens do in this dystopian predicament? Let the dynasty giants come to blows with each other. Let us not be passive spectators but instead enter the arena of battle. Let us not withhold our punches but deliver them forcefully against both camps. In the ensuing free-for-all, we may yet awaken our slumbering people that there are better choices outside of the brawling titans.

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