Pyramid scheme is
almost always a scam

What is surprising is that Filipinos still buy the pyramid scheme as a fool proof system for earning oodles of money. Despite years of proof that many had fallen victims of a Ponsi scam.

But that is the tragedy of the whole thing. Built on lawyers or agents, it is only those on the top of the heap who usually earn the astronomical interests or earnings the scheme promises. Thus, they are impelled by the prospects of vast return that spur them to undertake sales that only expand the field of victims on the lower rung of the l adder. Well, it seems that, in the end, most of the victims tend to remedy the situation by pleading that they, too, were also victims of the scam and by claiming that they were just enticed to do commercial transactions in the belief that the system was a fool proof way to earning good money. And, in short, they are victims themselves.

The funny thing is that there are hundreds of angry investors of the Performance Investments Products Corp. who are claiming that they, too are the victims of PIPC's Singaporean President Michael Liew.

So what's new? Only the hunt for Liew. And that seems to be a fruitless search for the missing business mogul who disappeared with as much as $250 million of investors' money.

* * *

The government is now caught in a quandary. How to serve the arrest warrants against the 130 guerillas in Basilan purportedly involved in the ambush and beheading of 10 Marine personnel.

Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, AFP chief, assured that the military is going to help the PNP serve the arrest warrants should the Basilan court issue it. It is very unlikely that the PNP could implement the arrest of the 35, much less for the 130.

True, there are several battalions of troops now in Basilan. But arresting the wanted men, if ever they are deemed by the RTC as such, will prove problematic.

Well, one can only hope that the move will not lead to an all-out war in Basilan. This is something that we can ill afford at this stage.

* * *

While all of us are looking around for the next presidential contestant, perhaps it is time that we Pinoys, look at Tony Meloto of Negros Occidental as the next potential presidential candidate.

Of course, that may not convince the majority. After all, Tony Meloto is no politician nor is he backed by a political party. But what he has done so far is something that promises to galvanize the country into a widespread revolution and reform movement.

We don't have to count the number of homes Meloto and Gawad Kalinga had put up for poor Filipinos, more important is that he had instilled in them the values of self-help and hard work which helped them overcome their long accepted poverty.

This is what we need. Our ability to revive the values our fathers used to treasure. It's nothing sort of miraculous the dismantling of the squatters mentality and its replacement by our ideals of self-help and what hard work and deprivation as well as pride can transform communities into beehive of productivity.

This is what the country needs today.

Meloto does not have the charisma of a movie star, nor is his language as eloquent as the rantings of politicos who can snatch out of pure air beautiful phrases.

All he and members of the Couples for Christ can come up with are the homespun ideas on how we can change our lives and transform communities from dirt and squalor to one where people learn to love one another and care for each other.

That, after all, is what a country means.

Perhaps, it is about time that we change our outlook and try to find out whether we can change our country's political future.*

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