Mirror reads Conscience of the People, badge reads Presidential Candidate, can reads BALSEM.

The government’s temporary direct cash assistance program (BLSM, sometimes jokingly referred to as BALSEM, to provide instant pain relief) – ostensibly to compensate the poor for the recent fuel price hike – has been branded as mere pork barreling, with ministers that have no connection to the scheme but thought to harbor presidential ambitions scrambling to be seen distributing largesse among voters ahead of next year’s elections.