This Time They Are Relevant

For so many years I was frustrated on what’s happening politically in our country. The people keep on electing unqualified politicians in the local and national elections. Their reliance on popularity and name recall resulted to electing congressmen and senators who have no ability to write laws. If there are pea-brain-monkey in the Senate and slow-poke-turtles in the house it’s the fault of the electorate. Truly there is a need to educate our voters.
The constant useless bickering of the house and senate shows the quality of our politicians. When you listen to them you sometimes feel the need to strangled their neck and erase them in the face of the earth.
So for several years, I was one of the million Filipinos who are not only frustrated but also angry.
But yesterday it’s a different thing. The senate approved in the final reading the PERA ACT or the Personal Equity and Retirement Account Act. This PERA Act, authored by Angara, will allow us to contribute as much as P50,000/year for our own private retirement account. The scheme will require us to deposit our contributions in banks which will then be managed by an entity under the Department of Finance. This entity will invest our funds in government securities, bonds, foreign currency and non-speculative stocks.
Our PERA savings will be available to us when we reach 55 years old either as a lump sum or lifetime pension.
The contribution will be tax exempt.
This time the politicians specifically the Senate are relevant because this PERA Act bill answers a need of the people.
Can you imagine the domino effect if politicians forget their self-interests and make laws that are relevant to us?