Empty Barrels

This happens whenever I take the bus home: The TV is on and is tuned to a local TV station (more often GMA than ABS). I’m not a fan of whatever show the TV plays, but whenever it takes its break, I squirm. I have to suffer through another batch of advertisements. Why is this bad? Because I will, without a doubt, get to see barrages of pointless government propagandas.

Take the recent “Spread the Charity”. It is by a “charity” organization and it shows montage-styled slideshow demonstrating all of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s charity. Ha! Tagging PGMA with “charity”? That’s like tagging Fox News with “afrocentricity”! Of course, there’s a token Lion King knockoff percussion song or a token Pachelbel’s Canon knockoff violin song playing, as if inspirational music and images alone are enough to convince Filipinos that they live in a progressive nation, and that they have the best president EVAR. 

And this isn’t an isolated case. Our government does self-promotional advertising all the time! When they’re not doing it on tv, they’re doing it on newspapers. And if not, they’re plastering their faces all over egocentric posters while some ridiculously big texts detail out that this project is their courtesy. Heck, sometimes it doesn’t even have to be projects. Sometimes it’s just Christmas greetings, because all it takes is a greeting for us to know that the governments care for us. Isn’t that right? 

I despise that. It’s the most useless thing. What other countries do that kind of stupidity? Not Taiwan. Not China. Not America. Not Thailand. Not Singapore. Not Australia. Ok, Burma does it. That strengthens my belief that our government is emulating theirs. 

But let’s put aside the nitpicking, and talk about why our government does these propagandas. 

So, why? It is because this is their way of fending off our hatred. See, whenever they assault you with their brand-spanking-new - yet ugly - propagandas, they try to tell you that they care for the people. In reality, though, you should take that as cue to start watching the news, where you can see them facing scandal allegations (in other words, don’t be fooled by their very classic diversion tactic). This “Spread the Whority” ad, for example, came out between the NBN-ZTE Investigation and the Rice Crisis, both of which are unresolved issues, much thanks to our system’s incompetence. And were you ever at an LRT station when the rice shortage outcries were loudest? There were Department of Agriculture ads – which, predictably, had PGMA’s face – saying “Pagkain sa bawat mesa” (translation: foods on every table). 

I’ve been to many different provinces, and, regardless of what province, every time I ask their dwellers if they think our government is doing enough for our country, I get a unanimous and resounding “no”. That’s just how much everyone distrusts our government. The posters and the ads are the government’s easiest way to hammer home the point that “Hey guys, credit me for this achievement at least”. The problem is, those achievements are, more often than not, so minuscule, that without mentioning them you wouldn’t even notice any difference.

“Oh, there are now street lights all over Caloocan City? That’s supposed to be done decades ago, but since Mayor Recom Echiverri wants us to know now that he’s finally gone and done just that, and then emphasizing on his posters that ‘this is where your tax money go’, three cheers to him!” 

The way things are going, we’ll never come to rely on our governments to let us feel progress while they do their jobs silently. Funny that they should insist that we quietly focus on our “economy”, when they can’t shut up about what they’re doing. 

And I’m going to question this “this is where your tax money go” hoopla. I ask, uh, to where? The lights, or the posters? You want to know how much it costs to get advertised? Expect to pay at least 5-digits - and this is a very generous estimate – and it’s not out of the ordinary to pay 6-7 digits. And it’s even more expensive when you advertise yourself on newspapers and TV’s. You’ll have to pay millions for that. 

Have you ever entertained the thought that those propagandas may be from your tax money? This isn’t very implausible, eh? But even if they weren’t from our money, I can’t help but enumerate the too many ways the expenses could be spent better. Every time I see another L.I.M. poster I wonder about the schools that could’ve been renovated. Every time I see Sonny Belmonte’s posters, complete with his douchebag grinning, as if smug about the way he never leaves his seat, I wonder about the homeless. Every time I see another Bayani Fernando’s very manly and pink Gwapo crap, I wonder about the many roads that could’ve been paved. Let’s repeat this ad infinitum, while thinking of the oil, the disabled, the rice, the facilities, the railways, the classrooms, the education, the drainage, the electricity, the advocate groups, and the hungry, that the funds could’ve supported. 

By the way, the ads they make are lame and dishonest. It’s too bad I don’t have the pictures, but you can always use your imagination. First, let’s recall Dept. of Agriculture’s “pagkain sa bawat mesa”. It’s more like “pagkain sa aking mesa” (translation: food on my table). There’s also an ad by Recom Echiverri, saying “Welcome to the historical city of Caloocan”. Hah! Welcome to the hysterical city of Caloocan! I’ve never heard of anyone saying “Yo, this Sunday is really quiet. What say you we head to Caloocan and get cozy?” And there’s also a “Boxing sa QC” poster, which is an event promoted by a councilor. I wish I could show you how stupid it looks, what with it showing a councilor - who only visits the ghetto when election time comes - in topless and fully flabby glory. I could go on and on. 

Sadly, though we can call things out on our blogs, what’s to stop our government from continuing the whoring? There’s too little we can do but lament. But if you have a spraycan lying around and you want to practice your graffiti skills, you can tag those self-promotional posters. And don’t you go feeling any compunction now for vandalizing government-funded properties; after all, they have, for the longest time, been vandalizing our sensibilities.

EDIT: I submitted this to Filipino Voices.