The problem is the government, not the people

What happens if the solution is the source of the problem?

It is easy to blame the people for their misery. But actually, it is the government that makes the peoples' lives miserable. The Philippine state has four elements: territory, people, government, and sovereignty. We cannot blame the territory and sovereignty for the huge problems confronting our country. The culprit is either the government or the people. And I dare say, the fault is in the hands of the government. The government controls all the powers, all the resources. The peoples' sovereignty is just a legal fiction and a political theory. In our country, sovereignty resides in the politicians.

The country is now burdened with a total national debt of ?11.9 trillion, the biggest in all history. And yet, the House, the Senate and the president approved a national budget of ?5.024 trillion. Based on statement made by the deputy ombudsman, at least 20% of the budget will be stolen by the corrupt, the inept, and the incompetent public officials. That means it is already accepted that every year more than a trillion pesos will be stolen by the corrupt. Still, the government continues to impose heavy taxes on the middle class. The poor do not pay income tax, they are recipients of dole-outs. The rich are mostly experts in tax avoidance or tax evasion. Nobody goes to prison, some can even run for president.

Less than 30% of all the 111 million Filipinos are paying income tax. The poor wage and salary-earners are taxed up to 32% of their income. That means that if you are earning a ?100,000 a month, ?32,000 goes to the government, leaving you with only ?68,000 from which you have to pay the SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-Ibig, and all sorts of burdens. You are compelled to pay taxes when you buy from the malls, when you use the airlines, and other transport systems. You pay donors' tax, inheritance tax, capital gains tax, and real estate taxes. People are burdened to support a corrupt, lazy, and uncaring government.

When you have a small business (and 95% of all enterprises are small, medium, and micro), you shall be burdened to pay all licenses and all permits, and then the DOLE shall inspect your books and payrolls and order you to pay out-of-this-world amounts of awards to workers who are not productive because they are unskilled. The government compels small business establishments to absorb the workers provided by contractors and industries on the pretext that they are contractuals and the agencies are labor-only contractors. And yet, the government hires millions of job order workers who have no SSS, PhilHealth, or Pag-Ibig. The government is the number one violator of its labor laws.

The congressmen are paid billions. As of today, we are the laughing stock in the world community, being a poor third-world country with 34 deputy speakers, each of which are reportedly allocated ?750 million, while the rest of the more than 300 congressmen have an allocation of ?350 million each. We have a very big government spending a lot of money, with no clear accomplishment. And yet, we cannot even defend our territory. Our officials are among the lowest performing when it comes to COVID-19 response and, after too many disasters and disasters, the government is still incompetent in protecting and helping the people affected.

A poor farmer in Pangasinan was imprisoned for 10 days because he mistakenly harvested his neighbor's mangoes, costing less than a thousand pesos. He had to find money for bail. But if you are a powerful politician accused of stealing hundreds of millions in fictitious projects and funding fictional foundations, you are called honorable and can even run again. Your chief of staff or someone else signed for you and so you are scot free and are called honorable. Is this the government that the people deserve? Is this the government that we are funding with our hard-earned money as taxes? I am speechless with outrage and anguish.