Is handing out rewards the best gov’t can do?

I was reading the Inquirer report on the bicycle-riding laborer-turned-vigilante and how the municipality of Cainta awarded him with a “house and lot” and P10,000 (“‘Bikeman,’ enforcer get P10K cash, house and lot,” Metro, 3/15/16). But the report seemed to have missed some details about the perpetrator or the villain of the story.

Was the villainous motorcycle rider a public enemy No. 1? What other crimes did he commit aside from misrepresenting himself as someone powerful and aside from the “maybe near” fatal assault on an agent of authority? Was there something that warranted or justified the value of the reward?

Is this how our government works? “Just” handing out houses and lots for free? In fact, how many cases per day do traffic enforcers encounter—cases where motorists try to run them over and are caught misrepresenting themselves as powerful and influential personalities? And how many of these are not caught on video by “netizens”?

We are a nation of more than 100 million Filipinos. Is giving out houses and lots for free justifiable and fair to all Filipinos? If that is the case, what will be the motivation of the middle class or lower class so they can improve their lives? Is this the same reward mentality of government folks in justifying their plunder of public coffers?

—JOSE SANTAMARIA, [email protected]