Taxpayers Lose P132-M Only Because of Five Men

By Alex P. Vidal 

“If taxpayer money were limitless, we wouldn’t need a budget at all.” —Betsy DeVos

ONLY in the Philippines where the people’s money could disappear like popcorns in the movie house, and no one was held accountable among government officials concerned.

If the people’s money is not stolen and wasted in junkets, graft and corruption, rigged biddings, incompetence (like the P1-B Ungka flyover project), unaccounted intelligence funds, bribery, among other acts of dishonesty and rapaciousness committed by rascals in government, it goes down the drain in one fell swoop without any justice.

Over the week, taxpayers lost a whopping P132 million when the Commission on Elections (Comelec) stopped the printing of ballots for the May 12, 2025 elections and discarded the six million ballots it had already printed.

The Comelec’s move was in compliance with the Supreme Court decision to include in the ballot five candidates whom the poll body earlier disqualified.

Just like that. Because of the five “disqualified” candidates the poll body had erroneously classified as “nuisance.” And it was worth P132 million!

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If the Supreme Court decision was delayed for another week, the amount of money wasted would have ballooned and probably doubled.

But the law is law. The Supreme Court decision must be upheld whoever gets inconvenienced and bilked—including the taxpayers who are always in the losing end.

To compound the matter, taxpayers money went up in flames only because of five candidates who, with due respect, might not even win.

If no one among the five candidates responsible for all this hullaballoo (they secured a temporary restraining order or TRO from the highest court) will make it, then what’s the logic of throwing away P132 million (at P22 per ballot already printed) in printing costs to begin with?

For sure, nobody from the Comelec had anticipated that a TRO would “sabotage” the printing of the ballots which had to be expedited now that the election is four months away.

Interestingly, some disqualified candidates in past elections were able to secure a TRO from the Supreme Court while the ballots were already being printed, but the poll body did not stop the process and the candidates’ names were still not included, according to Comelec Chair George Garcia.

Indeed, the throwing away of six million printed ballots for reprinting of the final copies was unprecedented and so costly.

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MIDLIFE SUICIDE MORE COMMON. Rates are increasing among men and women ages 40 to 64. The current economic malaise could be a contributing factor. Warning signs: Acting highly pessimistic, hopeless or angry, increasing alcohol or drug use, making impulsive, out-of-character decisions, getting rid of previously prized possessions, talking about wanting to die, withdrawing from friends, family and society, mood changes.

BREAST-FEEDING LOWERS BREAST CANCER RISK before menopause for women with a family history of the disease. The duration of breast-feeding does not seem to matter. The lower risk applies only to breast cancer before menopause and only to women with a first-degree relative with breast cancer, says Dr. Alison M. Stuebe of the University of North Carolina.

MAGIC CHOCOLATE. The same chemical responsible for the ecstatic highs of love and sexual attraction, phenylethylamine, is also found in chocolate.

BURNING. During the Middle Ages, if you were guilty of bestiality, you would be burned at the stake along with the other party to your crime.

LAWS ON SEXUAL BEHAVIOR. The United States has more laws governing sexual behavior than all of the European nations combined. The only legally sanctioned sexual act in the U.S. is private, heterosexual intercourse between married adults.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)