PATRIOTISM, NOT 'VOLUNTEERISM'! PARTNERSHIP, NOT POLITICAL
PEONAGE!
The full-page newspaper ads (Nov. 24, 2002) extolling the “volunteers” of Olongapo City who “saved Subic and transformed it into the country’s first Freeport” is just another empty Gordon show–a brazen attempt to rewrite history, mislead the people, and soothe the hurt of those who really sacrifice for Subic.
Volunteerism is not a Subic invention. It is as ancient to the Filipinos as their “bayanihan” spirit. But it took Dick Gordon to twist their virtue and march the Olongapo people off under the cause of “volunteerism”.
Yet Gordon’s very acts would ravel his own myth. For it was found out later that his administration pulled off the fraudulent release of at least P387.5 million purportedly for the salary of “volunteers” (just a part of the P855 million illegal expenditures disallowed by the Commission on Audit, which remain unsettled until now)–money that was due that but denied to hungry workers amid the opulence of the Gordon era in Subic. The “volunteers” ask now: if they did not receive the money, then who did? Still, the ambitious politician would persist in using what he has wantonly abused, naming his own political party in 1998 the Volunteers for a New Philippines.
“Volunteerism” accordingly to Gordon was simply an expedient tool. It got the job done., fast and at minimum cost. But when people of Olongapo City, Zambales and Bataan– even those who were working abroad–responded to the call to “save” Subic, that was not “volunteerism”. It was plain patriotism. And when people stuck it out, doing menial jobs even without paw, that was not “volunteerism” either. It was simply the hope that they or their children would have some real job someday. Even in the case of Gordon’s loyalists who served him until the Supreme Court threw him out of Subic, that, too, was not “volunteerism”. It was either blind political patronage, or unadulterated bossism.
It is condemnable enough that those who sacrificed the most in Subic were abused by Gordon and his ilk. But it is worse that their name–and their deeds–would still be used in vain, ten years to this very day.
The people want no more of this abuse and mockery. What they needed then and now is partnership with their leaders, not political peonage. What they rightly deserve is sincere recognition and respect, not hollow praises and empty shows that cloak the exploitation perpetrated against them.
We now urge the Office of
the Ombudsman for the speedy resolution of the graft case involving the P885
million expenditures disallowed by the Commission on Audit, part of which
involves the salary of Subic “volunteers,” which has been pending for more
than one-and-a-half years now and granted more than twenty extensions upon
request of Sec. Richard Gordon and his co-residents.
We also ask the COA why theses disallowed expenditures have remained unsettled for more than six years now and why no action has been taken against the responsible and accountable former SBMA officials.
All below, Originally signed:
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BHENG BALES FELINO SANTOS EMELITA DELGADO LOUIE KABIGTING IGNACIO RAMOS |
YOLLY ANOS JIMMY MANOLO PENNY ULANDAY SALLY CASTILLO |
