The Funeral of the Public Treasury

Those are our money – shelved meters deep into the soil of Sharrif Aguak, Maguindanao.

With the discovery of the high-powered firearms in the same area where the “truly magnificent” (speak with a tone of sarcasm) event happened two weeks ago, I have been left thinking: Filipinos’ taxes go to the government for military and police expenses, as well as to the funding of the salaries of the government officials. I would like to assume that there are other notable projects which the government has been doing – though barely evident, if NOT REALLY evident. But on the context of the present occurrence which has terminated the Philippines’ positive value depiction in the international limelight (defaming the land of Charice, Arnel Pineda, Pacman and Peñaflorida), it seems like the money entrusted by the Filipinos to their government – for the betterment of the country – is buried meters deep in the soils of our land.

Worse, buried hundred thousand meters deep in the pockets of the politicians.

While stomachs of hard-working people screech in hunger, rifles and guns bang as people full (and fool) of power simply vomit what has been left of them. While people suffer the wrath of calamity because of perilous houses and die after failing to survive the strong currents of floodwater and mud, ammunition have been sheltered safe and sound inside the homes of the powerful to be used for “future” plans. “Future” in terms of general welfare would be utterly plausible, just as the electorate have voted upon those in position to protect and promote public safety, health, morals and policy. But the “future” which has ever been so self-centered and private – falling short in providing good shelter to the “unhomed” – is condemnable.

And there is our money, in the soils of Maguindanao. In the pockets of the politicians.

I have loved our country because of our unrelenting efforts to fight against foreign domination. This is our land, we have claimed our freedom, we have asserted sovereignty and have owned a rich archipelago. We have constructed military forces and police reinforcements to protect what we have fought for in the course of our “periodized” history. We have created a system, have adopted a good ideology in governance, and have crafted the “Philippine Republic” to represent each and every Filipino people, bearing in mind our well-being, safety and protection. What a promising plot for another box office hit. But this becomes a flap as the system fails because of the powerful wanting to be more powerful – and working out to be the MOST powerful – manipulates the system.

The taxes that the Filipinos have been faithfully paying to serve everyone have become the politicians’ tools in retaining power (which, by the way IS NOT THEIRS, but OURS, the Filipino people, if they have forgotten). The military who could have been instruments of peace, and the policemen who could have acted as safeguards against the unjust and the criminals, both have become accomplices in the crime (add “s” for unexposed cases of salvage, and the extrajudicial killings that have ever been rampant). The firearms which could have been used to paralyze evil doers have been become evil in itself because of the motives of those who have used it. The bloodline of the government for state survival has become the tool for bloodshed to eliminate Filipino citizens wanting to preserve the republic – our democracy, our country. The “future” that speaks of public welfare, not of private, self-centered ones.

We have funded the rifles, guns and ammunition that have been used in terminating the lives of lawyers whose core goal is to protect their clients and argue for our rights in the middle of abuses in the hindsight. We have subsidized the backhoe that has dug the last abode of the journalists who have ever been risking lives in delivering accounts to the mass awaiting for updates about the practice of democracy. We have paid for the criminals who have killed the civilians whose innocent presence has been very timely for the kiss of death. We have rewarded the brainchildren of the crime with both the capital and manpower to commit a crime against the state – AGAINST US. From the highest paid criminal who has faced his victims before shooting, raping and stabbing them to death, up to the lowest paid ones who have obeyed the orders of their masters – we have all been sponsors of their poorly lived lives.

The criminals have – without any mark of conscience - taken away 57 lives, 57 liberties, and 57 rights. All of us, as well, have been ripped off our lives, liberties and rights. Because the 57 victims represent each and every one of us – we who have also trusted the government, paid them a fair share of our hardly-earned money, and have relegated to them the seat of power (which now, they truly have forgotten, is not really theirs). We have been killing ourselves because of the wrong “representatives” that we have posited in our precious democratic and republican government – sipping the blood of the once-praised, Philippine democratic system.

Then we ask where our money is.

Haven't we acted upon rightly against the embalming of the public treasures and properties by the country's “professional” embalmers? Haven’t we been vigilant enough to notice that the funeral of our public treasury has long been overdue? A big NO whirs in the land where one of the greatest massacres on earth have been made.

Where is our money?

There, shelved meters deep into the soil of Maguindanao – the surface thereon lies the gravestone of our liberty. Everywhere, buried hundred thousand meters deep in multiple password-locked vaults and multi-pocketed wallets of the politicians.