Once and for all, let me remind you of our position:
We are not against the construction of the market. We know and we see that the market vendors and stall owners need a better place to continue and grow their businesses. What we want is for our dear councilors to present to us first a FEASIBILITY study before entering into a loan agreement. We need to know if the 3 storey market they are proposing would be beneficial to the vendors. We need to know if the addition of hundreds, maybe thousands of stalls, would be able to maintain a healthy competition within the market. We need to know how much will be the rent if this new market takes place. Would the ambulant vendors be able to avail it? Would an ordinary vendor be able to pay the rent?
To our legislators whom should be accountable to the people, maybe, you really just need to focus on what the people really need rather than putting all your eyes on the loan. As we speak with the market vendors, we heard them say that they are for the repair of the market, since it would surely be less costly to our municipality. Have you ever consider that idea dear councilors? Does it ever cross your mind that, ‘Oh, maybe they are right’.
These are the vendors who are speaking. These are the people who will be first hand affected into whatever your decisions would be.
The ballooning local debt
The municipality of Taytay already has at least 342 million worth of loan excluding its interest. Adding the 170 million, that would be around 512 million, placing us on the top spot of the municipalities with the highest local debt in the country.
People from the administration keep on saying that Taytay is a highly developed municipality. I once quoted our municipal mayor in his State of the Municipality Address last 2009 saying, “Dapat nga matuwa tayo na nangungutang tayo. Ibig sabihin nito, kaya nating magbayad sa Land Bank.”
Clearly, this is his concept of development. He did not even thought about the fact that even after he could have been re-elected thrice as mayor, we are still paying this debt— that an innocent child of today would have had to carry the burden of paying for this loan in the next 15 to 20 years.
If we are really thinking of development, we should have just invested on projects that will promote livelihood, projects that will generate income for the municipality or projects that are far more sustainable and agreed upon by the people.
Why loan more?
Look at this picture, the Sangguniang Bayan recently loaned 7.5 Million for the temporary tents in the public market. Surprisingly, in one of the newsletter issued by the municipality, it has been projected that the budget of the mayor’s office alone is 171 million. Why do we have to loan the 7.5 million? Did it really helped in solving the problem?
Do we really have to loan and let the interest alone deduct at least 20-30 million to our annual budget?
Imagine if the (at least) 50 million pesos we pay annually for our debt be used to improve our emergency hospital who could not provide you with any service unless you pay them fifty pesos. Imagine if this 50 million be used to send children to school. How many lives they would have changed?
Personal attacks deserve a personal response
Just when I was about to go to sleep, a dummy account messaged me on facebook. He said, “puro ka daldal!!!”. A poser account on twitter also once asked me, “Puro ka pag kontra! Ano na bang nagawa mo?”. I actually don’t want to post the things me and my group have already done, since it might be a little boastful to some. But for the sake of answering their questions and for the purpose of inviting more people to join our cause, let me tell you:
Our group, though with limited resources has been able to touch lives. Unlike the government, we do not have a regular budget. Most of the time, our own pockets do the job, but still, we managed to make a difference.
We had conducted medical missions that had already reached more than a thousand people in the municipality. We had educated hundreds of mothers with regard to proper parenting and proper health care. We had conducted leadership trainings that had inspired and empowered hundreds of youth inside and outside of the municipality. We had inspired thousands of elementary children by providing them school supplies and life inspirations. We had expressed love to the special children by giving them attention and support. We had been able to lobby laws in the congress that affected the lives not just of the people of the municipality but of the whole country. We had represented the town and the country in many local and international gatherings. We had planted at least a thousand trees with the sincerest heart of reducing our own carbon foot prints. We had restored the life of two rivers by just igniting the spirit of bayanihan among the people around the area. In times of calamities, we had reached hundreds of affected families by simply encouraging others to help and do the same. We have stand against executive orders that will remove the rights of the people in Lupang Arenda and other areas in floodway. We had cleaned at least 20 streets voluntarily. We had helped a number of women and children who were abused to find hope and gain strength. We have changed the lives of 4 elementary students and 6 college students who are our scholars. Most especially, we are slowly but surely changing the culture of indifference, cynicism and apathy among the people by advocating and exemplifying genuine service and ethical and empowering leadership.
We all made these possible without the cross intentions of running for a public post or of impressing the people.
We do it with heart, with passion— with dedication. We do it to bring the message that everyone else should do it as well.
Hope I had been able to show these skeptics that we are not just objecting, why we wanted to study things first and why do we do what we do. We really don’t care if you don’t appreciate us and what we do. At the end of the day, it has never been between you and us. It has always been between us and HIM.
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