I don't know if I've written about this before but many years ago, I had the pleasure of attending a forum on "Good Governance" held in my old college. The guest speaker was no other than Jejomar Binay himself. Of course, he wasn't Vice-President then but the Mayor of Makati City.
Makati is one of the more successful cities of the Philippines due to the fact that it's home to many businesses and firms. It's the commercial hub of the country so to speak. Anyway, I was still a naive young Political Science student then and cynicism hadn't completely eaten out my heart yet. I was expecting an informative speech about governance and how cities could become attractive to investments and other such topics. Imagine my disappointment when, instead of an informative speech, what we got was a campaign speech instead. Binay went on and on about how many welfare programs Makati had for its residents. He went on about free this and free that. One particular slide of note from his self-aggrandizing and insipid presentation, was about how his administration gave free cakes to senior citizens on their birthdays. He spent an unusual amount of time on it too. I thought, "What is it with this man and cakes?"
Needless to say, I came out of that auditorium a slightly dumber person than when I went in. I was disappointed that he thought so little of college students that he'd give a campaign speech, free of any useful information, instead of something meatier for hungry minds. I was disappointed with the audience who lapped it all up with their applause and most of all, I was disappointed in myself for daring to expect something different. At that moment, Binay's character became clear to me. The man's a politician through and through and he thinks we're all stupid and easily impressed with free shit.
About that last bit...
I want to talk about cake; free cakes. Some time ago, the very same cakes Binay boasted about became an issue before the Senate. As usual, there were poorly substantiated allegations about how the cakes were a scam for kickbacks and so on. I didn't think the Senate, that supposed august body, could sink any lower but there they were speculating about the prices of your average cakes.
Recently, the same issue popped up locally. The mayor of the neighboring city of Lapu-Lapu is facing a "scam" regarding free cakes she'd been giving to seniors. Just like with Binay, the scandal was hardly a scandal at all. The defense is that it is within the government's discretion to decide how to spend the people's money and spending money on welfare for the elderly, in this case cakes, is perfectly valid.
I'm not going into the issue of whether there were any anomalies in the cake buying. What I want to talk about is this idea of just giving people free things, like it's what governments are supposed to do.
Governments should promote the people's welfare but when the national and political debates veer into the issue of pastries, you begin to wonder about how far this idea had come. There are priorities. To the average Filipino, the government is "good" when it gives you free stuff. People like Santa Claus and politicians love dressing up as Santa. Who wouldn't want to be the guy giving out gifts and candy to the people.
The Filipino people have become so base and weak that they buy into the what is simply bribery. So little is expected from the government that free gifts and cash is enough to win hearts and minds. Look around. Step out of the goddamn Starbucks for a moment and take a look at how they operate. You know, this is why I was so opposed to the Reproductive Health bill. The government wants to subsidize people's sex lives at the taxpayer's expense. Free cakes, free condoms, free cash, free for everyone! Hooray!
I'm not opposed to the idea of welfare. People need a helping hand once in a while to get on their feet. However, when it gets to a point where you're no longer helping a person up but just tossing stuff at him like throwing a fish at a clapping seal, something is wrong. Civil society has become to weakened and the opportunistic predators in barongs are all too happy to play the giver; like a pusher to a crack addict.
If anyone criticizes, call them heartless. If anyone says that our welfare focused governance is becoming unreasonable, call them "anti-poor". Yes, yes, the poor should be helped. They should be helped. Uplifted? No. We don't want them to not need us anymore. But we should help them. Help, yes.
Whether its "Conditional Cash Transfers" or free cakes, this is how it is now. This is what passes as enlightened leadership now. Maybe Binay was right all along to assume that we're stupid. Maybe all people really want in a leader is a guy who'll take care of everything and give us free stuff. Sounds comfy, not having to worry about where the money is coming from. Anyone can be suckered into the allure of a carefree dependency, even me.
The cold hard truth in all this is that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Government does not produce money; people do. Government taxes people and out of all possible things that tax money could have been used for, from infrastructure to education, it's spent on cakes instead. But cake is so delicious isn't it?
Cake is bad but it tastes so sweet.
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