Punchline
The baby boomers revolt
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
THE senior citizens in Pangasinan are in a revolt mode contra the LP presidential tandem – Mar Roxas and Leni Robredo- through no fault of theirs directly, but indirectly.
The baby-boomers feel outraged that the touted Daang Matuwid of the Roxas-Robredo tandem denied them what they desperately need most at this time in their lives – the P2,000 added pension for their health care.
While the decision was made by PNoy, the seniors believe that Mr. Roxas could have at least argued for them to show his mettle as a president for the people he seeks to serve, not as a meek follower of PNoy. They were disappointed that they are seeing Mr. Roxas as a muted follower, no different from his reaction when he was bypassed in the Mamasapano police operation that led to the massacre of 44 SAF men. When they had expected him to resign to protest the loss of trust in him, he kept to himself and swallowed his pride to hang on to PNoy’s coattails.
This time, Mr. Roxas, again kept to himself and said nothing to protest PNoy’s rejection of added pension for old-timers, just to be on the good side of PNoy.
“We certainly don’t need a leader like Roxas who doesn’t know when to stand up for what is right and just, to stand up for his principle and integrity,” a senior in Dagupan bellowed in the company of three other balding friends while their cold cups of coffee wait to be consumed in a fast-food chain.
Ironically, as PNoy painstakingly tries to justify his rejection of the P2,000 increase, saying SSS will go bankrupt and will affect the other members’ benefits if he allows it, SSS is trumpeting its continued success in improving its funds for the members.
A press release from SSS announcing that it has “attained double-digit growths in total benefit releases and contribution collections in Luzon, with both reflecting an increase of 11 percent for the first 11 months of 2015.”
Here’s the rest of that PR: “SSS Senior Vice President for Luzon Operations Group Josie G. Magana said that benefit releases for Luzon-based members from January to November 2015 grew by P2.13 billion, for a total of P21.58 billion which was 11 percent higher than P19.45 billion disbursed for the same period in 2014.”
What this simply means for the government and the SSS members is with an efficient and competent management team, SSS can be expected to work for the benefits of its members. It will not and cannot go bankrupt as PNoy would like us to believe.
What PNoy failed to appreciate is the fact that the pensioners today had sacrificed and worked hard to cope with the demands of their membership in the past when they were productive for a guarantee that they will be helped when they are no longer productive, and future inflation makes them completely vulnerable.
This is the life cycle that PNoy completely missed. His claim that the present members will suffer if the pensioners will be given what they want cannot hold water. The present members will also have to invest in their own future pension very much like what the pensioners today did for themselves when the pensioners before them enjoyed an adjustment in their benefits as well.
So, indeed, what was PNoy thinking about? Or is he thinking at all? And can’t Mr. Roxas think for himself?
* * * * *
CRAZY DUTERTE. To the bashers of Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte, they who could not see beyond his cussing, kissing and local flavor as probinsyano (he who out of frustration caught himself venting his P.I.s on the Pope himself), here’s an item from an unlikely supporter – Fr. Emeterio Barcelon, a Jesuit, like Pope Francis.
First, here’s who he is. Fr. Barcelon, former president of the Ateneo De Davao University, formerly taught at the Asian Institute of Management and was a senior fellow at the Development Academy of the Philippines.
Offhand, on Duterte’s oft-reported predilection for uncouth language, Fr. Barcelon admitted that “he says crazy things but he gets things done.”
In appraising Mayor Rodrigo Duterte of Davao City as a presidential candidate, Barcelon said that the Davao mayor, with Sen. Alan Cayetano by his side as VP, he could be the catalyst that would unleash Mindanao’s full economic potential.
Below is the full text of the statement from Fr. Barcelon on Mr. Duterte:
“I am biased in in favor of Duterte as other Minadanaoans especially
Davaoenyos. I admit he says crazy things but he gets things done. His pet peeves are drugs and petty thievery. He once told me: “In ten years that I was City Prosecutor of Davao I was not able to keep one drug pusher in jail. They have plenty of resources and connections. Our laws are inadequate But I weigh the profits of these drug pushers against the lives or our young men and women. Once on drugs they are condemned to a living death. I, therefore, hate drugs.”
“I don’t know Duterte that well. I once asked him in Cagayan de Oro:” Is it true Mayor that you were thrown out of Ateneo de Davao. His answer was: “That is not true. That is a lie. The Jesuit fathers went to my father and asked him to take me out.” He was a stormy petrel. His father was a Cabinet member who then brought him to Digos and then to the University of Mindanao. He did his law studies in San Beda. Somewhere along the line he got straightened out. His mother, Nanay Soling, was basically a saint and probably prayed a lot for him.
“His main agenda is peace and order. He has shown that he is good at that in Davao. My cousin Doctora who is an OB-GYN specialist in Davao, tells me that when she has a call at midnight she is not afraid to jump into her car, stop by the gas station and go to her patient’s house without fear of hold up. She also claims that she can wear her jewelry in the market and public places with no fear of snatchers.
“This is the second pet peeve of Duterte, the petty thieves and snatchers. He tells them that if they want to do foolishness, they should do it somewhere else and not in his territory. I had an employee who was also a sitio leader. He noticed there were a lot of visitors to an apartment regularly. He reported it to the Mayor’s office. It stopped. He suspected it was a drug den. After a year the line formed again. He reported it again. Again it stopped. A third time it was reported it stopped permanently. What did the Mayor’s office do? I don’t know, But they gave whoever was fooling around three chances.
“Why do Mindanaoans love Duterte? If not love at least feel that things will get done. If Duterte gets elected as President the Mindanao problem will be solved. And Mindanao will carry the whole nation to the prosperity that it deserves. The good statesman Ting Paterno used to say: “Visayas has with too many storms and Luzon’s absorption capacity is at a peak and cannot process any further development. If the country is to move forward it has to be the development of Mindanao. The insurgencies both of the NPA and the Muslims will be solved. The development of power sources especially hydro resources which abound in Mindanao. Luzon has developed Binga and Ambuklao and other sources will be done. Mindanao has at least twenty potential large hydro powers, like Polangui five’s potential 500 megawatts, that can be developed according to Ernie Aboitiz who studied the matter.
Then comes the mineral resources of Mindanao that can be developed. The gold, copper, nickel and other precious metals are left in the ground while people have no jobs and suffering from hunger. It was only recently that the enclaves of Mindanao, that face the sea, were connected to make Mindanao one economic community. A railroad to connect Cagayan de Oro to Davao, and Davao to Zamboanga would help. Once unified with roads and resources harnessed Mindanao can be the source of bumping the nation into industrialization and prosperity.
(For your comments and reactions, please email to: punch.sunday@gmail.com)
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