There are high
hopes that with the country’s economic numbers we will be forever leave behind
the tag of being a third world country.
For
decades it has been like a stigma that we are the sick man of Asia in terms of
how we fare with respect to our Asian neighbors.
We will
not debate who made the things that put us where we are right now, instead we
will focus on the important matters that we as a country should be doing making
sure that we will be successful in the next coming years.
 |
| Senate President Tito Sotto and his fellow senators view of the model of the new senate building that will be rising in the Bonifacio Global City, inset is the architect's rendition of the design(photo credit to Manila Times) |
Sure
enough there are still a lot of things that is in need of doing, infrastructure
wise, we lag behind our Association of South East Asian neighbors. Our
international airport- the Ninoy Aquino International Airport for one is a
great example, the gateway to our country, the very first place that will greet
foreigners visiting the country - we could offer more than what is existing.
Now here
comes Mr. Rigoberto Tiglao who raises a very good point in his March 20, 2019
article published in The Manila Times titled “P15B monument to 24 political super-egos.”
Last March
18, there was a groundbreaking ceremony for the Senate’s new building in the
country’s newest business district, the Bonifacio Global City (BGC).
A whooping
P15 Billion taxpayer’s money will finance the new building of our senators,
just imagine that.
Mr. Tiglao, enumerated what can we do for the betterment of the country if we realign the P15B pesos, he says : Other uses I can think of for the P15
billion to be used for the Senate’s offices: a vaccination program to free our
population from the scourge of measles; the purchase of a thousand dialysis
machines distributed throughout the archipelago to extend the lives of an
estimated 4 million Filipinos with diabetes; the decongestion of EDSA through
new bypass or even elevated roads; a new fleet of state-of-the-art attack
helicopters, the key weapons system that would end insurgency in our country;
permanent soup kitchens in every major city to feed the poorest; the
decongestion of our city jails that has left the accused — not yet the guilty —
living like animals.
These are just samples of how P15 billion
could be used to benefit our countrymen, especially the poorest of the poor.
But for our
senators, those uses for P15 billion aren’t urgent. The insult to the nation
even escapes them – that the design for the Senate headquarters, a symbol of
our nation, is by an American firm. Why not let only Filipino architects, who
are after all world-class, design it?
For
purposes of full understanding, clarity and truthfullness,we have quoted in full the whole
article written by Mr. Tiglao for the convenience and knowledge of our reading
public.
P15B monument to 24
political super-egos
SENATE President Vicente Sotto 3rd
and 10 of his colleagues were smiling from ear-to-ear during the groundbreaking
ceremony last Monday for the Senate’s new building in the country’s newest
business district, the Bonifacio Global City.
In a tweet in June last year after I
first reported on plans for the body’s luxurious new building, Sen. Panflio
Lacson, who headed the committee that proposed the project, claimed that it
would cost only P4.6 billion.
News dispatches on the groundbreaking
event yesterday belied Lacson’s claim, reporting that Senate sources said it
would cost P8.9 billion. I reported last year that construction-industry
sources who checked the building’s specs — which had state-of-the-art
“green-building” features — estimated that it would cost P10 billion.
I consulted my sources yesterday.
With cement and steel-bar prices likely to go up because of the
administration’s massive infrastructure program, and the economy’s robustness
that would lead to a boom in demand for new private building, construction
costs in the BGC area is likely to rise from last year’s P120,000 per square
meter to at least P150,000 in the course of its three-year of construction
period.
How much then would the new Senate
11-story headquarters with an 8.5-hectare floor area cost? P13 billion. Plus
the P2 billion cost of the land — P15 billion.
Better use
There are so many things that immediately come to mind on how P15 billion could be better used for our people.
The most urgent at this time would be
to repair our airstrip in Pag-asa Island, transform it into one that can
accommodate C-130s, and build fortifications and even tourist hotels (as Taiwan
has done in its Taiping island) there. Why is this urgent?
Because the stupid suit against China
that the previous Yellow regime filed has prodded not only that superpower, but
Taiwan and Vietnam to fortify their islands — many of which, including our
Kalayaan Group of Islands, the arbitration decision ruled as not “islands” but
mere rocks.
These countries therefore have
concluded that what would belie that suit’s ruling that these are just rocks
and not islands, would be to turn them, through massive reclamation projects,
into huge islands — and let the faces of former Foreign Affairs secretary
Alberto del Rosario and Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio go black and blue
shouting that these are just “artificial islands.”
Other uses I can think of for the P15
billion to be used for the Senate’s offices: a vaccination program to free our
population from the scourge of measles; the purchase of a thousand dialysis
machines distributed throughout the archipelago to extend the lives of an
estimated 4 million Filipinos with diabetes; the decongestion of EDSA through
new bypass or even elevated roads; a new fleet of state-of-the-art attack
helicopters, the key weapons system that would end insurgency in our country;
permanent soup kitchens in every major city to feed the poorest; the
decongestion of our city jails that has left the accused — not yet the guilty —
living like animals.
Insult
These are just samples of how P15 billion could be used to benefit our countrymen, especially the poorest of the poor.
But for our senators, those uses for
P15 billion aren’t urgent. The insult to the nation even escapes them – that
the design for the Senate headquarters, a symbol of our nation, is by an American
firm. Why not let only Filipino architects, who are after all world-class,
design it?
Our senators want an 11-story
headquarters. That would be roughly two senators for every floor. They point to
President Duterte as the excuse for needing that much space; the building is
designed to have space for 65 senators, as the President indicated he wants to
increase the number of senators to that number as part of his plans to shift to
a federal system.
It was sickening to hear Senate
President Sotto say in his speech that the new Senate building was “extra
special for him” as a third- generation politician of his clan, since his
granduncle was a member of the first Senate, and his grandfather a congressman.
What? Sotto thinks spending P15
billion in taxpayers’ money for a new Senate building is his contribution to
his clan’s “illustrious” political career?
Servants
“The structure is going to be a worthy bastion of democracy, of free speech, of great ideas … It is going to be an illustrious home for true servants of the people,” Sotto said in his speech.
Give me a break. The new Senate
building will be a monument initially to the egos of the 24 senators who agreed
to build it, and then to future senators who would occupy it: The edifice’s
grandiosity and expansiveness will be a daily reminder to them that they are
powerful politicians, and that the billions of pesos they spent to get an
office there was all worth it.
Lacson last year said the building
would be “iconic,” and would be comparable to the US Capitol, Germany’s
Reichstag, and Great Britain’s Palace of Westminster.
That idea is so absurd it borders on
the hilarious. In the first place, the US Capitol houses 535 representatives
and senators; the Reichstag 709 Bundestag members; and Westminster Palace 1,355
members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Lacson’s building will
be for 24 senators.
Didn’t anybody tell Lacson that the
US Capitol has a Senate wing? Why don’t they just build a Senate wing in the
Batasan Pambansa complex, which will even foster closer cooperation between the
two chambers, who can then pass the needed laws more quickly?
Superpowers
Lacson wants the Senate building to be on par with the legislative buildings of three of the world’s superpowers, which have the finances — and the right as economic powerhouses — to build such expensive icons, as symbols of being on top of the world.
Let’s be realistic. We’re at the very
least a generation from being a US, a Germany or a Great Britain. We’re still
struggling to crawl out of our Third World status, we have tens of millions of
people who are still poor, and our infrastructure remains one of the most
undeveloped in Asia. The senators, with their new building, apparently want to
feel as if they are legislators of the US, Germany and Great Britain.
On second thought, maybe we should
let the Senate push through with its P15-billion edifice.
It will likely rouse so much public
anger against this largely useless institution that it would be a walk in the
park for Duterte to call for a referendum to abolish it. After all, it has been
a block to our development. And nearly all of our neighbors in Asia have a
single-chamber legislature that has been the most efficient set-up for a
republican system.
If that ever happens, I would think
the P15 billion spent for that to come about, shall have been well worth it.
What can you say about this?
Share us your thoughts by simply leaving on the comment section below.
For more news, updates, feel free to visit our site often.
Stay updated with today's relevant news and trends by hitting the LIKE
button.
Thanks for dropping by and reading the post
Report from The Manila Times
0 Comments