OPINION: The race for Xmas

BLOGISTA
By Cha Monforte

dec 18

It’s not only the Panabo City Council which is in a hurry of wrapping up things before this mid December. The council steered by Vice Mayor James Gamao had made marathon sessions since Monday to beat a finish before yet the middle of the month.

Yesterday, it made its last for this year to compensate the no-session Mondays beginning today until the New Year. Just like the Congress that is in a hurry of settling the thorny issue on CARP extension, municipal and provincial sanggunians also want now to have their Christmas vacations.

This has been easily so with our government officials while ordinary government men have a hard time getting approval for official leaves during the Yuletide Season even while they have a lot of earned leave credits. The department heads, on the other hand, try to beat the elected officials to the draw by setting at the most early date the closing of books as far as the COA rules could allow. In turn, many well-meaning suppliers-those who won their bids fair and honest- will end up scratching their heads for not getting their checks before the New Year. Now there’s a long Christmas vacation waiting out there, compliments of GMA’s holiday economics. Surely, banks will be closed, and government checks have to wait for encashment by 2009 na.

OK, there’s this great race for Christmas. The kargadors in our palengkes and all those in the underground economy remain to be hopeful of earning good bucks before Christmas day. They are hopeful of the Season’s big consumer spending when OFW remittances are heavy and bulk of yearend savings are splurged. Oh, that Pinoy spending again. There’s still no crunch for our OFWs and their families back home, I observe. Bettors are also extra hopeful- of winning the Last 2 that has now proliferated in Davao del Norte and Comval. The estimate three years ago is that each day bettors delivered at least P3 million bet money in our two provinces. (Is this underestatement? I ask our authorities). That’s a cool P1.095 billion industry yearround since Last 2 has no holiday. Multiply it by 365 days.

OK, our farmers on the other hand are hopeful, too, over the yearend benevolence of their landlords not to take fully their shares and give gifts to them, although the landlord- and Lakas-Kampi-dominated Congress as of this writing is in the thick of of marathon discussions on whether to extend CARP or not. But I bet my usual, seldom P10-worth Last 2 bet: the Congress will end up giving not the pantawid sa gutom but a pantalya legislative measure that would be left hanging on the Yuletide’s air since like Davao del Norte District 1 Congressman Arrel Olano they want to have the Christmas vacation so they can resume their gift-giving of rice, noodles and sardines, the “electoral gifts” (I should kindly repeat the words of naughty and malicious pundits in our kantos, inggit lang mo).

Anyway, also in this season of oil price decreases, presidentiable Senator Mar Roxas is crying SOB to the Palace for wanting to effect more price rollback to the level of over P20 per liter for gasoline as the crude oil price in the world market is further nose-diving, so poor Juan dela Cruz in the Pilipins and the Tagumenyos -because of Mayor Uy’s novel flexi-fare ordinance- could have one biggest pinaskuhan in this Yuletide Season of 2008. (For online edition, visit my blog at: http://cha4t.wordpress.com, for comments and reactions, text 09069104553, or e-mail: chamonforte@yahoo.com)

Filed under: congressman arrel olano, congressman way kurat zamora, panabo city council hall, panabo vice mayor james gamao, congressman arrel olano, congressman way kurat zamora, panabo city council hall, panabo vice mayor james gamao