BY ROMMEL YNION
LONG before this controversy swirled around the overpricing of Iloilo Convention Center (ICC), “No To Corruption” billboards dotted the landscape of Iloilo City, summing up the solution to a malady that Ilonggos had but refused to acknowledge not because they were blind but simply because they were gullible.
It was not a malady that any Ilonggo could just pooh-pooh into oblivion, but a malady that became the sine qua non of their existence. It devoured them. It dehumanized them. It desecrated their very souls. And yet, no one of them felt indignant about it. Oh yes, maybe, except me.
Let me confess my indignation transcended the righteous variety. It rose above self-interest. It bordered on self-flagellation. It defined self-sacrifice. In its unadulterated sense, it was hara-kiri, as they say it in Japanese. Yes, suicidal, to say the least.
Truth be told, I was the one who rented all those billboards all over the city for over two years. Although it cost me a fortune, I was satisfied because I knew that I was planting the seeds that would germinate and grow into a national consciousness.
Now, as I see this ICC brouhaha and other corruption-related issues, I feel that the seeds I helped plant three years ago are now beginning to blossom into an awareness of our decadence as a nation that can help set us free from the propaganda that has stunted our growth all these years.
Up until now, I can sense a seething cauldron of indignation in my heart because I continue to witness how the powers-that-be have ransacked our government invoking buzzwords that could be mellifluous to the ears but malodorous to the soul.
What can we profit from all the glitter and glamour if in the end, we lose our soul? What can we profit from all the accolades now if in the end, we lose our future? What can we profit from all the illusions if in the end, we lose the truth that can set us free? As we struggle to get out of this quicksand, the more we get enmeshed in it.
Look how hard we struggle now even just to comprehend the enormity of it all: Iloilo Convention Center (ICC) more expensive than the Bird’s Nest in China. All along, they bombarded us with propaganda oozing with buzzwords, most salient of which is “progress”. The more we try to shake off the hangover, the more we get dizzy.
If there is a word in our dictionaries that is open to all sort of misinterpretations, it is “progress”. How can the ICC symbolize progress when its overpricing has undermined our soul? How can the ICC signal the influx of investments when it now illustrates our decadence? How can the ICC help Iloilo City attract investors worldwide when it has become the symbol of its corruption.
Corruption has been the trademark of our city government. Our city hall itself is the epitome of corruption. Built at a whopping price of P810 million, it is pound-for-pound the most expensive city hall in the country today. Its estimated cost was only P250 million but ended up at a cost over 200 percent from its original cost.
From the “ghost” employees to overpriced birthday cakes, our city mayor and his cabal of magicians have made our city hall a den of thieves. To each according to his greed; from each according to his modus operandi. That is now state of our city. It has become a haven of flimflammery. It has become a fertile ground for deception. It has become the nation’s capital of corruption.
Sugar is to the ants what corruption is to predators. Yes, Hilmarc is such a predator that has gravitated to other havens of corruption, one of which is our very own Iloilo City in which it is now building the Iloilo Convention Center poised to host one of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) ministerial meetings next year.
The hallmark of Hilmarc is to capitalize on the greed of government decision-makers to bag juicy projects. Common sense dictates that they are simply good at lining the pockets of these officials considering the consistency in their bagging all these contracts all over the country.
That’s just the way they are. Too sweet for ants to ignore. They set aside huge budgets for decision-makers who, out of greed, cannot just say no to them. Small wonder the price tags of their projects have skyrocketed through the roof. Small wonder all government projects have gravitated to them through the back door, not through normal channels in the case of lesser mortals. Small wonder they have now landed in the eye of the controversies involving overpriced projects.
Alas, before becoming the host of APEC ministerial meetings, Iloilo City has become first the host of Hilmarc that has put it on the world map, so to speak. Come to think of it, Hilmarc has singlehandedly achieved for the city what APEC can achieve for it: Put the city on the world map for all the world to see in all its “glory”.
I simply rest my case./PN
