When public funds become private

The billboards are still there. Infrastructure projects using public funds are advertised as projects of this and that official. How dare these shameless officials continue to claim as their own as these private projects, those funded by public funds by people’s taxes!

Our people, especially the voters, should be wary of candidates who use public funds for their private campaigns. These abusive candidates should be exposed for who they really are: greedy individuals who will use all means, including public funds, to win and get elected.

At present, political power translates to more pork, more wealth, and more personal perks. Abusive politicians use some pork for the people or for infrastructure and other projects, then keep a large percentage in their pockets. This is an open secret known by all, including the voters. Why do such abusive politicians remain in power?

Vote-buying is widespread and known. While prohibited, Comelec has never been able to stop this practice. With no known effective punitive action and no courageous, effective public or private office to discipline the abusive, shameless politicians continue this practice, with the voters exchanging their precious, sacred votes for a few hundred or thousand pesos.

A few projects are initiated here and there, supposedly for the welfare of the people. In reality, however, these projects turn out to be more profitable and beneficial for the sponsoring politicians than the people.

Politicians continue to grow wealthier and more powerful. Their number is legion. The majority of our voters, our people, continue to wallow in poverty, their communities stagnant through decades. Although numerically more than the greedy and abusive elected officials, the people are the powerless, the silenced millions.

How can the Filipino people be made to realize that power is in their votes, in their numbers? How can the Filipino people be convinced to vote for honest public servants who will serve their interests and our nation’s? How can our people be encouraged to refuse the small change paid in exchange for their votes? How can they be persuaded to realize that they deserve more welfare and services from public funds and that they should never allow abusive politicians to steal people’s funds for their own private interests?

Posters and media advertisements are expensive. Our people should be alerted to those who are spending so much funds for public visibility. Our people should check how much candidates are spending, where the money for these ads come from, and the information should go viral and public. Our people should be warned not to vote for those who will spend millions beyond their salaries and assets. Cleary, these candidates are those eyeing public positions to enrich themselves privately once elected.

Within a barangay, it is easy to trace how one individual or family votes in an election. If their candidate wins, then they are among the recipients of certain benefits from the elected. Never mind if the benefits are short of the public funds available for them. If their candidate loses, then they are excluded from receiving benefits due them.

Is it possible to have a people watch and expose those who are buying votes, those who are intimidating voters, those who are using their pork or public offices and funds for election and private purposes?

Is it possible to mobilize our people to be more vigilant and united in fighting electoral and post-electoral fraud and abuse, from the barangay all the way up to national levels, so that finally, the Filipino people emerge as genuine deserving beneficiaries of public funds?