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A sizeable chunk of our national budget goes to the DPWH and the much vaunted economic stimulus package is to be spent on infrastructure and public works programs. The idea is that government spending on infrastructure programs like farm to market roads will spur development in the countrysides.

 This is a noble effort to jumpstart the economy in the face of  a global financial crisis.
The government has to counter the ill effects of  mass layoffs and reduced remittances by our workers abroad and a slow business environment. It is believed that such action by government will cushion the impact of the crisis to our fragile economy.

But will it work?  Has it ever worked ? In the light of what has been exposed by the World Bank in its report on the alleged irregularities in the implementation of contracts for roads and other infrastructure it has funded over the years, this leaves much room for doubt.

Different international agencies that monitor corruption has put the Philippines on the top of the list , a huge embarrassment to our country and a big slap on the face to our leaders. And yet, despite the outcry that followed such damaging revelations by the World Bank, our  politicians are scrambling to put together an economic stimulus package that addresses the same concerns.

Our leaders, it seems have become expert road builders and highway engineers and you can glean on how our congressmen appropriate their “pork funds.” Your  guess is as good as mine but in a ratio of  proportions, you’re  likely to see more roads than hospitals.

This partiality towards concrete highways,” farm to pocket roads” and irrigation systems has its reasons. Unlike vertical structures that can be easily checked and monitored for cost overruns these do not. Horizontal projects reap more profits than buildings and in our rotten system of payoffs and kickbacks, the returns to our politicians are generous.
Did you ever wonder why our cement prices are so high?

Government is a big spender and it loves to spend even bigger. Not contented with
the usual infrastructure , our leaders prefer mega projects. Hence we have mega roads, mega bridges as well as mega dams and mega airports. Everything seems to be on a larger scale. The more government spends, the more our leaders earn. No wonder we have a national budget into the trillions!

Over the years our Presidents have outspent each other and we have seen our foreign debt balloon into the billions of dollars since we gloriously kicked the great dictator out of the Palace. But has our lot improved? We’ve seen a diaspora of our citizens, struggling to get work in foreign lands and yet what have our leaders done? If not to extol these workers as modern day heroes, nothing.

Our leaders have done nothing to stem the tide of  migration  by providing better living conditions in our own land. Going around the country ,what do we see? Huge expenditures for infrastructure. We spend so much to develop the countryside  by providing  farmers access to markets for their products through supposedly good roads and other agricultural inputs but where do these go? If not in the pockets of some politicians then to powerful undersecretaries and people close to those in power.

Corruption in our country has become institutionalized and it is all over. It has become a way of life for people holding juicy positions in government, elected or not. The average citizen has resigned his  fate to the whims and caprices of those in power.

Politics has become more business than public service and the phrase public servant rings a hollow bell. People enter politics for a whole lot of noble reasons but one thing is sure , most if not all get out rich somehow.

This is the sad reality of today , where money turns the wheels of politics it is virtually impossible to escape its stranglehold. This is the sad  plight of our country, a far cry from the vision of our national heroes. Lest we do nothing we shall forever remain in its bondage.

 


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