SUCH IS THIS country really and figuratively: Poor in terms of want of economic resources and financial assets. Poor in terms of its victimization by no less than a big number of public officials. The former sad reality is the cause of the latter shameful situation. It is precisely the many public officials who make the country poor materially and socio-politically. Otherwise, the Philippines would be rich and the Filipinos blessed.
Thus it is that there are distinct voices heard here and there, in both gloomy and happy gatherings, to the effect that in a way, the Philippines would be affluent and the Filipinos would be well-off — were it not for the gross graft and flagrant corruption precisely taking place in government agencies at the expense of the millions of citizens paying indirect and direct taxes from birth to death plus the thousands of small and big business entities paying direct taxes.
In the event that it is a gigantic and even an impossible task to know how much is actually stolen from public funds in favor of private pockets in day-to-day running of the government bureaucracy, it would be enough to take into account the multi-billion pesos stolen year-after-year from but one government agency as the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
It fires and baffles the imagination how much more money — all taxpayers’ hard-earned money nonchalantly demanded and taken by the government supposedly for the common good and public welfare — ultimately find their way to personal bank accounts and/or converted into private properties of many public officials.
The Philippine National Police. The Department of Public Works and Highways. The Bureau of Internal Revenue. The Land Transportation Office. The Commission on Audit. The Bureau of Customs. The Department of Education. The National Food Authority. The Government Service Insurance System. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
The Department of the Internal and Local Government. The Department of Health. The Office of the Ombudsman. The Philippine Senate. The House of Representatives. The Social Security System. The Department of Social Welfare and Development. The Presidential Commission on Good Government. The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office. The Department of Justice. The Department of Budget and Management.
Enough!
Question: Would it be but reasonable to public opinion and profitable to the general public, to have the above government agencies listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange?/PN
