#Hypocrisypamore

If the Biblical mark of the devil is 666, the hands-down emblem of sheer hypocrisy should be Daang Matuwid (Straight Path).

“Some 133 local government units received funds that did not pass the requirements under the budget law, according to the Commission on Audit.

At one point during his term, yellow President Noynoy Aquino equated the resurrection of Jesus Christ to Daang Matuwid which Church prelates should have protested considering the Christian faith has never been about vindictiveness but about forgiveness and hope.

Daang Matuwid was equated with political vendetta since Noynoy used it as a war horn in attacking his political foes.

Noynoy’s Liberal Party (LP) then adopted Daang Matuwid as the name of its alliance in the 2016 polls as a yellow branding of its candidates which had Mar Roxas as standard bearer.

Despite being the anointed of Noynoy and having the full machinery of the government behind him, the campaign of Roxas from the start was destined to fail due to the mark of hypocrisy.

Then Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte presented an alternative which was a closed fist pointed at criminals and corrupt officials. He handily won over Roxas while defying all odds against a presidential bet.

Rody is railing against hypocrisy, including religious pretensions that had dominated the national consciousness for ages as a bastion of Roman Catholicism in Asia.

Noynoy offered Daang Matuwid similar to a religion claiming that it showed the nation “the path towards positive transformation.”

“We are weeding out the corrupt and strengthening our institutions and, through reform, we are freeing ourselves from poverty, towards a more just, more inclusive society,” Noynoy then claimed.

Daang Matuwid through the acts of Noynoy and his LP wards proved nothing else but vindictive justice in which opponents were persecuted while allies and other favored subjects were either shielded or allegations of corrupt practices or abuse of authority against them moved in slow motion.

Noynoy tried to mix the promise of redemption through Easter with the Daang Matuwid’s claim of ending deep-seated corruption which he said can be done by making a stand which obviously was a reference on who to vote for in May.

The yellow catchphrase was also equated with the transformation in the economy.

Noynoy claimed his administration was responsible for the sustained economic growth through a mutation of Daang Matuwid or the slogan “good governance is good economics.”

Empty boasts can’t be said to be in short supply under Noynoy’s otherwise lackluster term since chronic underspending that reached almost P600 billion in the five years of Noynoy restricted the potentials of growth.

If not for the remittances of overseas Filipino workers and the boom in the business process outsourcing industry that are both growth engines that Noynoy had no hand in, the economy would have been in the doldrums.

Instead of infusing fuel to the economy, Roxas and the LP cohorts of Noynoy came up with the Bottom-Up Budget (BuB) which was also termed Buy Ur Barangay scheme or a political patronage fund.

The Department of Budget and Management under then LP strategist Butch Abad released some P1.278 trillion to fund projects under the BuB program prior to the 2016 polls.

“Daang Matuwid through the acts of Noynoy and his LP wards proved nothing else than vindictive justice in which opponents were persecuted.

Some 133 local government units (LGU) received funds that did not pass the requirements under the budget law, according to the Commission on Audit.

State auditors in a 2015 report disclosed that of the 14,300 projects with funding allocation amounting to P20,905,841,493.71, 800 projects with a funding allocation of P1,278,156,698 were implemented by 133 LGU that are not part of the 2014 Good Financial Housekeeping Passers and Passers of After Assessment Compliance.

Roxas in a campaign pitch promised to devolve the BuB to barangays through a P42-billion scheme in which each of the 42,036 barangays of the country is entitled to P1 million each should he had won the polls.

Under the expanded BuB, the first 12,000 barangays will receive funding from the national government in 2017 and would be released through the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the agency which defeated LP standard bearer Mar Roxas used to head and was bequeathed to LP secretary general Mel Senen Sarmiento.

Roxas said he would allot an additional P100 billion, or the equivalent of P1,000 for each of the 100 million residents in LGU, including barangays, or in layman’s term, all Filipinos under the expanded BuB program which he called “BuB Pa More.”

Roxas is back for another Senate run and with more promises along the line of the sword sheath of hypocrisy called Daang Matuwid.