On big promises for country, Binay tops Eddie Gil

With his “Ganito kami sa Makati. Sana ganito tayong lahat” slogan, Vice President Jejomar Binay obviously wants the masses to believe that if he wins, the entire nation will enjoy the  blessings residents of Makati have been partaking of under the watch of his family. On this, Binay is far worse than Eddie Gil, the self-proclaimed billionaire presidential wannabe in 2004 who promised that if he won, he would personally pay the foreign debt of the country.

At the time Gil made that promise, the foreign debt of the country was $57.6 billion or roughly P3 trillion at the P56-$1 exchange rate at the time. On the other hand, to deliver social services to the people of Makati, the city has allotted a budget of P4.9 billion for 2014. Divide that by the city’s population of 529,039 (as of 2010), the social services allocation per resident would be P9,262.

Assuming the country’s current population is now 100 million, a trillion pesos a year would be needed to provide the social services Makati has for its residents. That’s 39 percent of  the 2015 national budget or P2.6 trillion. Meaning, during his term (assuming he becomes president), P12 trillion will be needed to apply the Makati-level social services program to all Filipinos. That’s roughly four times the amount needed by Gil to settle our foreign borrowings.

Regarding their motive for feeding the country with a pie in the sky, Gil could be forgiven for obvious reasons. On the other hand, there is no reason to doubt that Binay is not in control of his wits. He promises that, if given the chance to lead the country, other Filipinos, like the Makati residents, will be able to enjoy free medicines and hospitalization, free public education from elementary to high school with free food, books and uniforms and  modern equipment thrown in, low college tuition fees, free movies, birthday cakes, medicines and cash allowances for senior citizens. This promise speaks volumes of Binay’s resolve to capture Malacañang at all costs and by hook or by crook.

For one, he perfectly knows that Makati is the  business center of the country, thus it corners a big portion of the country’s total corporate business tax; and yet here he is making all poor Filipinos believe that if he becomes president, he will spread the good fortune of Makati throughout the archipelago.

Is Binay telling us that as president he can raise the funds needed by local governments to fund the provision of similar services? If he has the formula to replicate the prosperity of Makati in other LGUs, how come he has not shared this with other local leaders? Why wait until he is president to reveal the formula if indeed his heart bleeds for the country’s poor like he is projecting himself?

  —ROMMEL MENDOZA,
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