It comes across to me as a dismissive opinion about how I view things, and sadly it’s this sort of rhetoric that is hard to take for our many kababayans – that their question won’t matter because ‘they will believe what they want to believe’. No, our minds our not set and they don’t refuse to learn from experts. We are careful though about who we listen to and careful about agendas … and sometimes that’s the one exploited. People can still be swayed, but will logic hold well without the proper approach? It’s something to think about.

How do we explain this to people in the other socio-economic classes whose interests and priorities are very different from the public officials? I think this is where the campaigns of villar and noynoy are battling it out now or at least where they need to work on (D&E as you say).

Lastly, if we can’t fully predict the economic impact of each of their policies, how do settle the score between the two (or three in my case)?

As the ZTE NBN scam has demonstrated, the budget is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to patronage in our country. Sure there is pork and other insertions are present, but it is in the off-budget items, where a larger potential for profiting comes from.

Through govt to govt borrowing (as opposed to the deficit spending which is financed through the commercial money markets) a lot of projects escape the scrutiny of the budget process. That is why so many legislators don’t even bother attending budget hearings. It is not where they derive their largesse. Off-budget items, payoffs from illegal activities and from selling government regulations or incentives to special interests can provide more handsome rewards.

So a promise not to increase taxes or to control spending does not necessarily equate to a lowering of benefits to opportunistic operators.

It’s not even that clear where the biggest revenue losses are. Is it in bloated public work contracts? Certainly that is a major item. There are huge syndicates out there and they are well-established, with connections to all political candidates.

Is it in smuggling? There’s a huge business in fuel and oil smuggling, amounting to billions of pesos annually. There’s food, clothing, appliances, vehicles and lots of other stuff smuggled in from China and elsewhere (rice and sugar included). Those are big revenue losses, too. Smuggling is very difficult to control because it also results in some benefits for the public, mainly the lower cost of goods.

Is it in the failure to collect excise, income and other taxes? That’s a consideration. But the BIR certainly has been squeezing a lot of businesses and individuals lately, and there’s a huge outcry. Taxes are not well-liked because they increase the cost of doing business.

What about pork barrel? Politicians will certainly complain if pork is cut. But so will a large part of the public. Because a good portion of the pork is distributed to different constituencies, albeit with much of it sticking to the politicians’ fingers. But it is a redistribution of wealth of some sort, and it does have some multiplier effect, although in a very inefficient and very roundabout way. But I think that there’s no question that pork barrel results in huge waste of money. It’s finding an alternative that’s the problem, because it’s the fat that greases the political machineries.

And much of the corruption is at the local level. Can a national official control the local officials, especially if these local officials provide logistical and statistical support during elections? The Singsons, the Ampatuans and all those political dynasties and warlords are there for a reason. There’s a symbiotic relationship with the national government, that’s why there has been high tolerance for them. Cory Aquino decried these dynasties and warlords, but she made her pact with them anyway. Would any other president be different? I can only hope so, but I’m not betting on it.

And the fact also is that Philippine politics has been blighted by the existence of the caciques and the trapos, who dominated it and bastardized it for years. And, with Noynoy, it’s a “two-fer”. For the price of one, you get BOTH a cacique and a trapo. Maybe that’s the bargain that’s behind your selling point.