Politicians’ unbridled greed will drag PH to doom

The hot topic nowadays is the impending passage of House Bill No. 6398, the Maharlika Investment Fund Act, which was filed by Speaker Martin Romualdez, Senior Deputy Majority Leader Sandro Marcos, and six other lawmakers who are all related to President Marcos Jr. If approved, the law will create the country’s first ever sovereign wealth fund, with an initial investment of P275 billion.

Senior Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said that making Mr. Marcos chair of the Maharlika board is “a powerful statement that the highest official of the land will hold himself as ultimately accountable to the Filipino people.” This coming from a former president who was arrested for allegedly misusing state lottery funds while in office. Where do these shameless people get their confidence? Why, the very name “Maharlika” stinks and evokes memories of world-class chicanery and pretense!

Red flags fly high all over this dark evil castle that is surreptitiously but surely being erected by means of deceit, duplicity, and pretense. Are the proponents of HB 6398 even remotely credible and believable? Why should we entrust the management of these funds to a coven of witches and warlocks who think it is their own family business? Who determines where the money will be invested? Who will monitor the entire process and proceedings? Finally, who will be held accountable if it fails? How sure are we that the Maharlika fund will not also be systematically embezzled, like what happened to 1Malaysia Development Berhad or 1MDB?

Where does a cash-strapped and debt-ridden banana republic such as ours get the crazy notion that it still has a cent left over for investing in high-yield outlets? Will a beggar who can’t even be sure of where he’d get his next meal dare to imagine he’d make money and get rich by using the few coins he has collected to play for stakes and gamble these away?

We elected these lawmakers to make laws that will improve and uplift our lives, not for them to connive, collaborate, and conspire to rob us blind and milk us dry. The unbridled greed of our political leaders is a wild runaway horse that, if left unchecked, will drag this country to its doom and damnation.

Yue Fei, one of the greatest generals in Chinese history, lived during the last days of the Song Dynasty. He was famous for his loyalty to duty and love of country. According to legend, an inscription was branded with hot irons on Yue Fei’s back by his own mother when he was a boy. This inscription even now may be read on a million walls in present-day China: “tsin chung pao kuo,” which means “with utmost loyalty, save the state.”

With utmost loyalty, we must save our country from the onslaught of this modern-day golden horde composed of a united alliance of pocket emperors, each one of whom heads a political dynasty holding sway over their own medieval fiefdoms, an evil conglomeration of cheats, liars, hoodlums, mass murderers, tax-evaders, and plunderers.

All Filipinos who still love this poor shithole of a country must oppose and resist, with utmost loyalty, the passage of HB 6398, which will surely spell the end of us all.

Antonio Calipjo Go, [email protected]