Waning investments & the coming election

As 2019 nears, regardless of religious beliefs, we greet everyone a happy new year. To the politicians, however, regardless of political color, they greet their own selves a happy election year.

As we all know, the mid-term election is forthcoming. Therefore, expect current officials and the aspiring municipal/city/provincial/congressional candidates to try to preserve their energy and money for the long and hard political battle ahead. Also, expect that alliances will either be shifting or consolidating. Further, expect animosities to escalate and politicians’ attitudes toward the voting public to aesthetically improve.

Indeed, time and again, when roads are still filled with potholes and politicians seem not to care, you should know they don’t need anything from you. When faced with compelling necessities and where the much needed answers are undeniably in the politicians’ table and they seem to be scantily available, you should know that you are momentarily negligible. On the other hand, when a known snooty tend to be accommodating and a condemned tightfisted suddenly becomes so generous, you might entertain the idea that the world never runs out of miracles. But truth to tell, more likely, the man is into something else.

The fact is, all style-changing approaches are so compelling for the men and women who had been in it or are yet to squeeze themselves curiously into a messy world of entertainment we call politics, or distinctively, our brand of politics. A kind of politics that is totally dirty from beginning to end. This is a kind of politics where every coveted position has a price tag.

Therefore, anyone who can afford gets it. Obviously, it is a kind of politics where the politicians’ willingness to dangle billions or millions is the main determinant. Consequently, as they part with it, they shall be equally determined to get it back, of course, with profits.

But how are returns assured?  There are countless of ways but, absolutely, not from their salaries. Certainly, they can’t live with salaries alone. More often, they milk or exploit on projects. Unfortunately, such and other countless of ways are the primary reasons of our being undisputedly at the bottom of the annual corruption survey conducted by Transparency International. This undertaking is one that “draws on assessments and opinion surveys carried out by independent and reputable institutions. These surveys and assessments include questions related to the bribery of public officials, kickbacks in public procurement, embezzlement of public funds, and the effectiveness of public sector anti-corruption efforts”.

Worse, with some Ombudsman’s findings and recommendations frequently ignored by some equally corrupt politicians in power, it seems that corruption would still persist. As we all know, even some of the mayoral and gubernatorial hopefuls (potential candidates in Cebu included) are either perceived by the public or are regarded by the Ombudsman to be corrupt.

Curiously too, as reported by NEDA-7 Regional Director Efren Carreon, investors’ interests in Central Visayas is waning. Maybe, we can surmise that this is partly due to poor infrastructure or the lack of it. However, it could also be because some of our politicians (Cebu, in particular, which is part of Central Visayas) are also hunting down some of our existing investors no end and, in fact, have closed some of their businesses and have threatened to close other very legitimate undertakings.

Such is the sad reality of our kind of politics.  A kind of politics that is mainly money-driven. Where ordinary men from nowhere initially presented themselves to the people for service and became powerful once elected. Or men who are already successful businessmen or powerful politicians in their own right and run or continue to run either to protect their interests or widen them.

Clearly, therefore, corruption has now become a habit. So that, we have to deal squarely with these crooks by not electing them into office. Otherwise, with these unscrupulous politicians at the helm, coupled with a rotten system that these men and women continue to comfortably adhere, we shall soon see this habit becoming the country’s norm.