Thursday, August 26, 2004

Here's one of the reasons why we are in dire financial straits

Here's Dean Bocobo warning the public back in Feb 5, 2004 about GMA and Drilon and JDV's plan to turn the 2004 budget into a giant pork barrel for GMA's re-election campaign and waste tons of our taxpayer money:

Sen. Edgardo Angara warned today that the GMA administration would end up controlling the entire 2004 national budget as a giant Pork Barrel fund for the coming elections, if House Speaker Jose de Venecia has his way and merely re-enacts the 2003 budget. How does that happen. Well, if you think about it, the 2003 budget contains a large number of funded projects that have already been completed, right? What happens to the funds in that 2003 budget that find their way into the 2004 budget by the magic means of re-enactment. Well, they certainly shouldn't be spent on those projects again -- but then the President will have the right to "re-align" such funds. Get it? That's what Angara means by a giant pork barrel for the elections. Sen. Serge Osmena told media he estimated a total of some P100 billion that would thus become available to GMA's probably losing bid for a full six year term.

What no one said is the thought that immediately struck me. In losing, GMA will blow that whole wad and sink the economy with inflation, just as Marcos did in 1969, when he similarly spent a huge fortune to cheat and win the elections. GMa -- the economist -- could start a conflagration of devastating INFLATION with election spending.

Prescient, no?

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