Washing dirty linen in a cauldron

WE senior citizens have a penchant for folkloric tales which many of us believe as much as we do the Chinese Fengshui. Oh yes, despite our avowed claim to be a Christian nation and this is true to Roman Catholics of various shades and protestants of various denominations.

No wonder why politicians, those approaching rigor mortis especially, despite their status and some I would consider legal luminaries, would invariably associate issues and matters with this deeply ensconced beliefs in congressional deliberations.

When Sen. Franklin Drilon for example raised howl over the SEA Games cauldron he must still be stuck with the Filipinos' ‘’mahiwagang kawa” or “kahibulongang kawa” in Cebuano, which in our folklore tales of witchcraft is always an indispensable element. And this is where the problem of Drilon starts. His concept of a cauldron does not depart from the mahiwagang kawa or that small frying pan which he and Cory Aquino lit in 1991 SEAGames. It was a laughingstock along with our athletes’ performance then. Drilon laments why the Organizing Committee of SEA Games chaired by Speaker Alan Cayetano spent P50-million on a cauldron. He rightfully claimed that with that amount it could have built 50 classrooms.

But if we use Drilon’s crafty argument, then let us weigh the impact of the following expenditures during the reign of the Liberals, the party we refer to as “dilawan” or the Yellow Cult:   P100-million spent on Edsa Shrine; the incentive of P1 billion-plus for the 20 senators who convicted the late Chief Justice Renato Corona and that P50-million egg-shape sculpture at NAIA 3 considered by many as an eyesore to name just three. All together that would have erected 1,150 classrooms.  (Sorry for washing our dirty linens in a cauldron before our foreign guests. I have not even included the billions of pesos in foreign donations for victims of Yolanda which just fizzled out in thin air. By the way, CJ Corona was impeached and convicted by a cabal of insatiable politicians who crossed party lines for the incentivized Disbursement Acceleration Fund that ran to over P1-billion!. His fault: His Court decided to award the thousands of hectares of Hacienda Luisita, purportedly owned by the Aquino-Cojuangco clan, to the tenant farmers.)

The cost of SEAG cauldron which was done by a national artist for an ASEAN sporting event is nothing but a drop in the bucket. It is a work of art, not just a chunk of cement or a mishmash of steel and brass.  In the case of Corona’s verdict, every single cent went to the wrong pocket and we never saw any semblance of development, not even a single classroom or a piece of an eraser. All we see is how some of them could now pass as porky’s or porcine’s best. (For the record, only three senators refused to accept any incentive. They are Senators Miriam Defensor Santiago, Peng Lacson and Bongbong Marcos.)

There were legitimate shortcomings obviously brought about by miscommunications between sports delegates and the organizing committee. Athletes were ushered to different hotels rather than where they are supposed to be billeted is inexcusable. Lack of drinking water is simply unacceptable. The food supply that should cater to guests' preferable cuisine is insufficient. While these are veritable problems these can immediately be addressed provided all hands are on deck. SEA Games in the past have flaws but they don’t vent their ire the way we do. The cost of the cauldron seems big given our mindset of a simple “kaldero” but the truth is it is not the most expensive.

A few games had commenced prior to the formal start on November 30  with so many competitive sports added and these contributed to the miscalculations. But we cannot dismiss the suspicion that some crooks dipped their fingers in the cookie jar.

In the meantime, let’s enjoy the games and cheer for our athletes.