The notorious Nazi propagandist,
Joseph Goebbels remarked,â€
that a lie told a thousand times over becomes truthâ€. In this day and age of scams, scandals and plunder of public coffers, government propagandists rush in frantic defense of the actions of our public officials, oftentimes bending the law to suit their own interests.
Philippine laws are not alacking, and we have so many In the disbursement of public funds we have many government agencies to act as watchdogs yet somehow many transactions pass scrutiny.
Ordinary citizens already burdened by the problems of daily life seem oblivious to the affairs of government. With scandal after scandal,and an incessant spate of congressional and senate inquiries that often produce insignificant results, we are faced with a weary public.
The average Filipino of today has to contend with making ends meet. To make things worse the global financial crisis has taken its toll in our fragile economy by way of job lay-offs, lower remittances from our OFWs and high prices of basic goods. These factors along with a host of others have sadly made the ordinary citizen numb to issues that do not directly affect him
It is this seeming lack of concern and attitude that allows our public officials to get away with their excesses and misuse of public funds in the first place. We have not risen to a level of awareness typical of citizens in a mature democracy. The economic realities of day to day living has unfortunately prevented us from doing so and to act in unison as a people.
This is why the spirit of
EDSA was lost and the corrupt and powerful stand unchecked.Yet hope may not be far after all.
On the national level we have seen the likes of
Jun Lozada exposing the
ZTE-Broadband Deal, met with a fiery enthusiasm at first, but whose uproar was silenced by a clever use of propaganda to drown the issues. The rice crisis blew up in everyone’s faces and generated more noise than the bombshell that was
ZTE. And why? Because people were more concerned with their daily staple and how to survive a 24-hour day. Not that our people are lacking in priorities that they have become oblivious to other concerns but in a hierarchy of values survival often takes precedence. Such has become the sad state of our country today.
There are no masters if there are no slaves and years of subjugation by our own leaders are to blame.
Pres. Quezon said it quite right “
I would rather have a country run like hell by Filipinos than a country run like heaven by the Americans, because however bad a Filipino government might be, it can always be improvedâ€Decades later, here we are.We need not go far to see where we are now. Without vigilance and awareness of things in government we can never be freed from this bondage The time has come for all good men to stand up and aid their country. We, the public should demand transparency and accountability by our government officials.
Quite interestingly, in the local level, in response to address the issue of irregularity in the conduct of bidding for the
168-M heavy equipment purchase the
Provincial Board found itself in a quandary such that a new
Committee on Public Accountability had to be created. The existing committees in the Board had none appropriate enough to handle the issue.
Such mindset is reflective of our general insensitivity towards such concern which obviously is not top in our priority list. Nonetheless, bringing this to everyone’s attention may help achieve a level of awareness necessary to keep our public officials in check.
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Topic: Transparency and Accountability in Governance (Read 889 times)