Clueless folks
THIS NEWSPAPER’S banner headline “Binay leads amid graft raps” (1/16/16) implies that Vice President Jojo Binay’s emergence as the front-runner in the latest Social Weather Stations poll on presidential candidates is contrary to expectations. It is—but that is if the survey respondents are aware of the accusations against Binay and understand the implications of these accusations on their life or circumstance. In general, most of the respondents do not seem to know of the accusations, or if they do, they have no appreciation of the implications to them even if the accusations prove to be true.
The Philippine population is broken down by socioeconomic class into 1-percent AB, 9-percent C, 60-percent D, and 30-percent E. Class D being the dominant segment of the population, it can be said that the masa population in the country is Class D. Class E people are typically those who reside in informal settlements and live on a hand-to-mouth basis. If the SWS sample of 1,200 reflects the breakdown of the Philippine population by socioeconomic class—as it should—then 60 percent of the survey respondents belong to the masa and 30 percent to the dirt-poor segment of the population.
That raises the question of how many of the 720 respondents from the masa had heard or read about the many charges of graft and corruption leveled at Binay. The charges were made at an inquiry of a subcommittee of the Senate blue ribbon committee during a period of over 12 months. The hearings were aired by the major TV-radio networks and reported in Page 1 stories in this newspaper. True, the evening news programs on TV showed video clips of the hearings, but almost fleetingly, as program directors/editors focus on local crime stories and show biz news—the stuff that draw the masa’s viewership and the advertisers’ sponsorship. As for the 360 very poor respondents interviewed by SWS, their knowledge or understanding of the charges against Binay can be safely presumed to be zero.
Besides, the masa do not care if the national treasury was plundered. “It is not our money, anyway” is the common attitude of the masa. If more informed people told them that the money stolen by public officials is the money people had contributed to the government’s coffers in the form of taxes, which money could have been used to provide social services, many would just shrug their shoulders as they do not pay taxes, anyway.
Those who pay taxes among the masa of Makati would not be disturbed at all by allegations that Binay and members of his family had enriched themselves when they ruled the city. Even if the allegations were true, the masa of Makati would not mind. After all, the Binays had provided them free healthcare and education, and for the elderly, free movies, and on their birth anniversaries P1,000 and a cake to boot.
I remember a march on Ayala Avenue in February 2008 when members of civil society groups called for then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to vacate Malacañang for signing that outrageously anomalous NBN-ZTE deal with a Chinese corporation. But from the mystified look on their faces, the onlookers seemed to be asking the marchers what exactly they were angry about: “Bakit ba? Ano ba ang ikinagagalit ninyo kay Gloria? Ano ba yang NBN-ZTE deal?”
Those onlookers were people who had come down from the towers of big business on Ayala Avenue to watch the march. Working in the country’s financial capital, they are presumed to be college graduates and up-to-date on the issues that impact on their jobs and their lives. Yet, they were clueless on the controversy over the NBN-ZTE contract. The anti-GMA forces kept marching until they had worn out the soles of their shoes, but GMA remained in Malacañang until the end of her term.
In August 2013, “One Million People” marched to Luneta on National Heroes Day to denounce the pork barrel scam. The protesters who actually marched were mostly from the higher socioeconomic classes: professionals, businessmen, homemakers, students, priests and nuns. They have a better appreciation of the political situation and its impact on their lives because they are more educated and better informed.
The absence of the masa was conspicuous for obvious reasons. They were the beneficiaries of the pork barrel. Neither were the crowds-for-rent there on that day. That is because the crowd-renters were the ones being denounced. I remember what actress and Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado said—that their constituents shouldn’t look to her and her family for cash in the event that the pork barrel was scrapped, that they can’t be expected to fork over their personal money which they struggled to earn: “Basta wag lang manghihingi sa amin ang mga tao! E ano ang ibibigay namin? Hindi naman puwede yung pinaghihirapan namin dahil sa personal naman namin yun, sa mga anak, sa mga pang-araw-araw na panggastos namin.”
Her husband, the actor and now-detained senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., was tagged as having availed himself of P1 billion in pork barrel from 2007 to 2009.
The Inquirer ran a series of reports on what P10 billion, the amount supposed to have been plundered by some members of Congress, could buy for the poor. But the paper does not reach the folks in the countryside. Neither do the cable TV stations. So, the country folks are clueless about the pork barrel scam and of any other scam.
Binay leads in the surveys despite the allegations of graft and corruption thrown his way over the last 12 months. Nothing perplexing about that. Ninety percent of the respondents of SWS are not aware of those charges against him. Those who know about them either do not care as it is not their money that was stolen, or Binay had provided them ample social benefits.
Oscar P. Lagman Jr. is a political activist. He was a research associate in the early 1960s at the first public opinion/market research firm in the country, Robot Statistics, the Philippine affiliate of Gallup Polls.
