Theory of Exceptionalism

There really must be something wrong with the spending priorities of the government, yesterday; a privilege speech was given in the House of the Representatives about the government spending about the budget for the prisoners of this republic. Barring any distortion and misinterpretation of facts it seems that the average government budget for the prisoners is 68,000 php as opposed to the government budget for students in the elementary and secondary level which is 8,800 php.

I am not asking for the lowering of the national budget for prisoners, but I am for the increase of budget and subsidy of students in the elementary and secondary level.

The similar irony here is that for this week, the MMDA have been accosting pedestrians who are smoking in public places. The bigger threat is even issued that next time; there would be a bigger penalty. The question now is that if smoking in public places is prohibited then why is the president allowed to smoke in the palace which is not privately owned but owned by the public hence, could also be considered as a public place.

The president is a known smoker and this campaign against smoker should also cover him.

The trouble here is that Filipinos tend to subscribe to “exceptionalism” where there is a general feeling that rules and regulations cover everyone else except themselves. This is apparently true for the president and generally true for majority of the Filipinos.