BY ROMMEL YNION
THE funny thing about Ilonggos is, they just don’t give a damn. It’s as if, in their eyes, the world is just the way it is. And there’s nothing they can do about it.
They just watch the world go by as if it is just nothing, as if it is just a planet from another solar system, as if the people in it are aliens.
If Ilonggos have to define their character, they will just say: Ambot ah (I don’t know). Not because they really don’t know themselves but simply because they just want to be on the safe side.
And it is this attitude of playing it always safe that has kept them from reality, that has driven them to the edge of the cliff, that has doomed them to mediocrity.
That’s just the way Ilonggos are. Always in a state of suspended animation. They don’t like to rock the boat. They don’t like to ruffle feathers. They don’t like to bother anyone.
Small wonder they don’t mind even if they have already seen crooks milk them dry. Small wonder they don’t mind even if these same crooks jack up taxes to keep the cash flowing into their pockets. Small wonder they don’t mind even if these same crooks rob them more in the name of progress.
If there is one word then that aptly defines the Ilonggo character, it is “apathy”. It is, therefore, this culture of apathy that has kept Iloilo City the playground of treasure-hunters, highway robbers and mercenaries.
Where can one find a city where its citizens have to pay more taxes so crooks can steal more? No doubt, if this was our sales-pitch to tourists, they would flock in droves to us. Indeed, like Imelda’s shoes, that’s something unique that could attract them.
The real property tax hike is just the tip of the iceberg that juts out of the icy ocean. But to Ilonggos, it’s just the tip. Who cares about the tip? It’s not the iceberg itself, but just the tip. And so, they now have slammed into it. And only God knows what will happen next.
It’s the iceberg of corruption and voodoo economics. Where can you find a city that had to borrow P810 million from Landbank to build its city hall building estimated only at P350 million? Not content with it, it borrowed P269 million more for the development of a landfill project which until now remains invisible to the naked eye.
And that is why Ilonggos have to pay more taxes. To help city hall pay for its debts that never benefitted them. To keep the cash flow into more overpriced projects, let alone the non-existent ones referred to as “ghosts”. To embolden the crooks in high places to craft more creative ways to rob them more.
Armed with annual budget of P1.4 billion, Iloilo City Hall still cries: “Kulang!” (Not enough!) What? How can it be not enough for a city as small as Iloilo City? But Ilonggos, apathetic as ever, cannot even afford to take that one small step further to ask why in the first place it is not enough?
With the art of critical thinking alien to them, Ilonggos are too lazy to even dissect the annual budget and see for themselves that it should be more than enough. But no, they choose to just roll with the punches, unmindful of the robbery under their nose.
Already, city hall budget includes thousands of casual employees on its payroll, most of whom are said to be, well, ghosts – not to mention the battalion of executive assistants assisting the mayor in running the vaudeville before them.
Inundated with burgeoning debts and overbloated expenses, city hall has now squeezed Ilonggos dry, siphoning off especially from the rich among them the much-needed cash to oil the cogs of corruption and perpetuate its occupants in power. Is this just? Is this fair? Is this good?
And, sad to say, this is the reality Ilonggos have to endure silently as they helplessly watch their city mayor stand tall on that tip of the iceberg, shouting at the top of his lungs: My City, My Pride! But where is our city? And where is our pride? Now, as Shakespeare said, that is the question./PN
