Nothing Solid On Government Transparency

As reports of massive corruption by the Duterte administration surfaced these past three months, citizens are wondering at the .present Administration’s cavalier response to the exposes.

No word has come out from the Ombudsman’s desk. No involved official has been indicted and charged officially.

Department heads in agencies probed by Congress , albeit no longer in power, are still free, partying around and displaying their new wealth.

More and more, the people are becoming skeptical of the government’s resolve to cleanse its ranks of the corrupt and inutile bureaucrats.

Meanwhile, eighty percent (80%) of the people are grovelling in hunger and poverty.

Joblessness is palpable in major streets where workers line up to apply for vacancies.

Those with decent jobs are impoverished, just as well, by the unchecked spiral of prices of essential goods and services, food shortages and constraints brought by panicky announcements of more viral outbreaks.

Where do we go from here?

Well-meaning academics and professionals, echo workers’unions clamor for “nationalization of key industries and public utilities”, but not wage increases, short term job contracts but not regular secure positions.

More Ayuda is the Presidential response, when what is needed is a focused and wholistic support for farmers and manufacturers of basic food and necessities, buying from local and exporting to the world.

The scene has become surrealistic lately, as if nothing solid exists anymore.

What is to be done?

Every other Juan seems to have a solution. But the real solution is already there for all to see, but we seem to have blinded ourselves to see.

In fear, we have closed our eyes to what the geniuses of our race have outlined for us, not so long ago…systems change for a humane society in peace and freedom.
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(About the writer): Jose Cortez has been a political journalist for 50 years, writer, and editor. In pre-Martial Law days, he wrote for Manila Times, and post-Martial Law for Philippine Graphic and Metro Sun.