ORLANDO CARVAJAL:
Carvajal discusses shocking revelations on the alleged ill-gotten wealth of Commission on Elections Chairman Andres Bautista. He says Bautista’s case is another reminder that wealth is the choice qualification for high positions in government. Chairman Bautista may not be rich personally, as he claims, but he comes from a rich family and he has very rich friends that more than qualifies him as a rich man. Carvajal points out that in our system, it naturally occurs that only a few get rich and they alone get to positions of power and influence.
If an individual is run mostly by his/her subconscious, so is society run by the cultural subconscious of its socio-economic system. Thus in our system it naturally occurs that only a few get rich (1% of total population earning an average of P200,000 a month) and they alone get to positions of power and influence.
The shocking revelations on the alleged ill-gotten wealth of Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Andres Bautista is another reminder that wealth is the choice qualification for high positions in government. Chairman Bautista may not be rich personally, as he claims, but he comes from a rich family and has very rich friends that more than qualifies him as a rich man. SALNs do no tell us how many they are in government.
Poor Manny Pacquiao had a snowball’s chance in hell of winning a Senate seat if he had not become a billionaire like many of his colleagues. Bongbong Marcos was reported to have been required to, and he did, pay P90 million (the receipted portion only?) to defray the cost of an official recount. So how much did he spend for his campaign that he is willing to part with so much more to recover his initial investment?
Then once elected, they appoint their rich friends to high positions to thank them and to ensure their help in future campaigns. Thus together they prepare for these by making more money while in office.
Now here’s the tricky sociologically subconscious part. When the very rich insist on the rule of law and polite public conduct they refer to laws and polite conduct the historically privileged in the system have designed to prevent or drive away non-rich intruders into their exclusive rich boys’ club.
It is, hence, a rare opportunity that we have a president who is not very rich and has appointed some non-rich persons to Cabinet positions like my classmate Neda’s Ernesto Pernia, fellow married priest Cabinet Secretary Jun Evasco, DSWD’s Judy Taguiwalo and DAR’s Rafael Mariano among others.
But look at how mouthpieces of the rich boys club are spitting out fire and venom at PRRD for his maverick style, his unpresidential public behavior (that the poor majority applaud lustily anyway) and his proposed dynasty-busting federal system of government.
Yet we do not need Einstein’s genius to tell us it is insane to keep doing the same thing and expect a different result. We cannot have an inclusive socio-economic system unless we change what we have that subconsciously favors only the rich.
Still the rich are not to blame. It is just how the system works. Hence, if an individual must consciously override his/her subconscious to get on the straight and narrow so do society members have to make a conscious effort to shift to an inclusive system.