“ In the DoF vs DICT story, there was debate about on what terms the so-called third Telco player should enter and thereafter break the duopoly of Globe and Smart.

Not a day passes without us being bamboozled into dumbness by issues bedeviling this administration. This, aside from the recent wildly uproarious, meme-worthy, comic romp of the takeover of the House of Representatives by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Happily we have a cheat key, helping us out of our daily predicament, comic or otherwise.

How this cheat key works mercurial philosopher Slavoj Zizek puts as “when we read a piece of news, we should do so alongside another piece of news – only such confrontation enables us to discern the true stakes of a debate.”

In addition, Zizek says that “rather than focusing on the predictable reactions to the news, one should read it with two facts that are linked to the situation it describes.”

But before we get on with a modest illustration applying this cheat key, an advice: don’t be a willing patron of fake news pervading social media.

Persisting in reading and sharing fake news is no different from when you are desperately aiming to make love to somebody but you still prefer making love with your own hands: that’s way beyond kinky, it’s a perversion.

Back to my illustration. I recently put news about the debate between the Department of Finance (DoF) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) over the entry of the third telco alongside the news of the Commission of Audit (CoA) detailing the obscene travel expenses of resigned Tourism Promotions Board boss Cesar Montano.

A quick look at the two pieces of news won’t immediately give any indication of any relation. But they are in fact intertwined that it brings out something cock-eyed at the highest levels of the Duterte administration.

In the DoF vs DICT story, there was debate about on what terms the so-called third Telco player should enter and thereafter break the duopoly of Globe and Smart.

In the debate, the DoF insisted on an auction of radio frequencies and set the floor price at over P6 billion. The DoF wanted the government to generate quick revenues from the deal since the frequencies are owned by the public.

DICT insisted that an auction would not attract investors. DICT won the debate when it was unanimously agreed the next player will be chosen based on the quality of coverage, Internet speed and investment.

In the CoA vs Montano story, the actor had traveled abroad 14 times and incurred expenses CoA deemed as “excessive and extravagant.”

The predictable reaction here in the Montano story, of course, is graft and corruption.

Yet at the same time what the CoA charge sheet also is actually saying is that Montano and his people were irresponsibly spending obscene amounts money left and right and for the flimsiest of reasons.

“Do enjoy the coming week for the unexpected laughter from the uproarious comic turn in Congress.

Now, how do we relate Montano’s alleged irresponsible spending of money with the DoF’s mandate of looking for and quickly generating funds for government?

Before that, there is, of course, no harm about looking for funds, either from loans or selling government property so long as we can pay the loans back or government gets the better deal of any transaction.

But with the DoF insisting government quickly get hold of the funds betrays the glaring fact government hasn’t much money to go around with in the first place or it must be running out of money fast.

What grabs our attention then from the two stories are two facts about government money: the finding of money and the spending of money.

We cannot ignore the facts of finding and spending of money because the two are linked. If indeed the DoF is having enormous trouble getting hold of funds what is the business of Montano spending money as if there was no tomorrow? Why did he have to travel first class when the presidential directive was to travel economy?

As it happens, it is not only Montano who’s loose with taxpayers’ money. The DoF says fiscal discipline is being exercised on the government’s gargantuan budget but it does not seem so as the recent CoA reports show on the expenses of various departments and agencies.

CoA report after report show the same depressing pattern of departments and agencies spending obscene amounts of money as Montano, even as the budget deficit grows.

No one is being frugal! It’s Spend! Spend! Spend!

So, from two unrelated news we have arrived at one issue where government’s top dogs are sorely remiss with: no one is seriously advocating restraint on government spending, particularly on unnecessary and useless things.

It is therefore necessarily right to ask Mr. Duterte to do something about this alarming situation. Mr. Duterte must swing his reputed strong arm against all these unnecessary and useless spending of taxpayers’ money. Mr. Duterte must admonish his people with: “Hoy! ….ina! Magtipid nga kayo!”

At any rate, do enjoy the coming week for the unexpected laughter from the uproarious comic turn in Congress even as you await the forthcoming spectacle of pols slitting each other’s throats.

You can reach me at nevqjr@yahoo.com.ph.