BY: DONALD SEVILLA
STEP UP AND BE COUNTED
Just recently, I sent our househelp to buy a tray of eggs( 30 pcs/ tray).
Que horror ! A tray of not so large eggs cost around Php 220- 230 less than a year ago. To my surprise it now costs anywhere from Php 295- 300 sometimes even more depending on where you buy it from
An inflationary increase of about 34% compared to the Philippine average inflation rate of 3.2% for 2024.
And here we are talking only about eggs. What about other items in our grocery list? Fish, poultry, meat products and fruits and vegetables?
There is no escape from this bitter reality. Everyone has to eat. Like a stealthy thief out to rob us, the prices of basic goods have slowly inched upwards, hardly noticeable.
The average worker earns about Php500-600/ day and has to eat 3 square meals and feed his family, pay utilities, rent and others. In short for daily living expenses is he earning enough?
In contrast we have our politicians living the time of their lives, travelling first class on their grand vacations with their luxury handbags and fancy jewelry. They throw lavish parties for their baptismal and birthday events while our people worry where to get their next meal.
Is life fair? Definitely not. To our disgust they justify their “soirees” as spent with money coming out of their own pockets.
Crap! We were not born yesterday and so were they with nary a silver spoon in their mouths!
If our country has not lost billions to corruption every year then our people could have lived better lives.
From the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearings we learned that the DPWH alone in 2024 projected expenditures of at least a billion pesos a day for flood control projects.
We heard it right.Imagine Php1 billion daily for flood control alone.How about other infrastructure projects? We’re here talking of just DPWH but how about other government agencies?
I don’t blame the average citizen who tries to put one over us any chance he can, when the biggest crooks are in government like foxes watching over the chicken coop.
And yet despite this, our politicians have the gall to flaunt their wealth in public.Gone are the virtues of empathy and humility replaced by the glamour and glitter of wealth. Shamelessness is the norm.
I am angry. You should be angry. We all should be angry. These people don’t deserve our respect.
They shoud be thrown into the trash bin or better still, to a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth in the fires of eternal damnation!
#notocorruption
#speakupandstandup
#timetofightback