Davao City third district Rep. Isidro Ungab, in his “Basta Dabawenyo” podcast, disclosed that specific portions of the bicameral conference committee report had numerous absent figures, with some totals amounting to billions of pesos.
Ungab expressed his concerns about the matter, saying that throughout his 15 years in Congress, which included serving as the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, he had never come across a bicameral report that was devoid of specifics.
In response to Unbag’s assertions, former president Rodrigo R. Duterte stipulated that the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) cannot be considered lawful if it contains inaccurate information.
The following day, President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. denied the allegation of Duterte. “He’s lying,” Marcos was quoted as saying. “He’s a (former) president. He knows that you cannot pass a GAA with a blank. He’s lying. And he’s lying because he knows perfectly well that that doesn’t ever happen.”
This brings us to the subject of lying. In the Holy Bible, the Ten Commandments specifically state that lying is a sin. The Bible forbids lying and stresses the value of honesty, integrity, and truthfulness.
“A lie might not seem important to us, but in God’s eyes there is no such thing as a harmless lie,” said William Franklin “Billy” Graham, an American evangelist and civil rights advocate. “The New Testament says, ‘Each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor (Ephesians 4:25).”
But why do we lie – even when it seems unimportant? “One reason may be to build yourself up in the eyes of others – to make yourself seem more important, for example, or to get them to like you,” Graham said. “Or perhaps you lie to get yourself out of some difficulty – a difficulty you’ve gotten into because you failed to do something you should have done.”
But whatever your reasons for lying, what would happen if the person you’re lying to will know the truth? “The answer is obvious,” Graham said. “Instead of thinking well of you, they look down on you and realize you can’t be trusted. Instead of winning their love and respect, you end up with their scorn.”
The difficulties of life are intended to make us better not bitter. After all, life is one-half if and two-thirds lie. A Russian proverb advised, “With lies, you may go ahead in the world but you can never go back.”
Research in the United States showed that people lie in about a quarter of their daily interactions. In another study, done by Professor Jeff Hancock of Cornell University, it was found that people are more likely to tell a lie during a phone conversation than they are in an e-mail exchange.
“Most day-to-day lies tend to emerge in conversation they’re spontaneous so it’s unlikely for lies to occur in e-mails, which are more planned,” Prof. Hancock explained.
Jerome K. Jerome pointed out: “It is always the best policy to speak the truth, unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar.”
American president Thomas Jefferson noted: “He who permits himself to tell a lie once finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time till at length it becomes habitual.” To which William Shakespeare, the father of English literature, dismissed: “When my love swears that she is made of truth, I do believe her, though I know she lies.”
Unknowingly, lying is a health hazard. In fact, some studies have shown that lying can boost blood pressure, because it requires more brain function. The more a person lies, the more he adds stress (and, hence, increases his blood pressure), says Dr. David Robertson, director of the Clinical Research Center at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee.
The other side of lies is of course truth. “Truth is always strong, no matter how weak it looks, and falsehood is always weak, no matter how strong it looks,” Phillips Brooks points out. Truth doesn’t hurt unless it ought to.
Winston Churchill quips: “Truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it; ignorance may deride it; malice may distort it; but there it is.”
One good thing about telling the truth is you don’t have to remember what you said. Robert A. Cook said it best: “Always tell the truth. Then you don’t have to worry about what you said last.”
Barry Stevens, paraphrasing the Holy Bible, stated: “The truth shall make you free, but first it shall make you miserable.” Franklin P. Jones dismissed it frankly: “Of course the truth hurts. You would too, if you got kicked around so much.”
Let me end this column with this story taken from God’s Little Devotional Book for Men:
Four young men once competed vigorously to become head of the trust department at their bank. After considering the merits of each applicant, the board of directors made its decision. They decided to notify the young man of his promotion, including a substantial raise in salary, at a meeting scheduled after lunch.
During the noon hour, the young man they had selected went to the cafeteria for lunch. One of the directors was behind him in the line, separated by several other customers. The director saw the young man select his food, including a small piece of butter. As soon as he flipped the butter onto his plate, he immediately shuffled some food on top of it to hide it from the cashier. Thus, he avoided paying for it.
That afternoon, the directors met to notify the young man, but prior to bringing him into the room, the incident was told to the entire board. Rather than give the young man the promotion, they called him in to discharge him from the bank. They had concluded that if he was willing to lie to a cashier about what was on his plate, he would be just as willing to lie about what was in the bank’s accounts.
“Lying isn’t a matter of degree,” the book concludes. “A lie is a lie. Truth is the truth. And you can bank on that fact!”
