DEMOCRAMATA

I am one to neither quibble about surveys nor argue about inclusive growth; too many moving parts. However, the apocalyptic dimension of the latest Social Weather Station (SWS) survey indicating 15 million children hungry and malnourished while 12.1 million families (43% of the entire Philippine population) considering themselves poor would surely jolt even the most jaded observer. Notwithstanding the devastation of “Yolanda”, I was sure somebody from the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) would challenge the SWS data as soon as it was published. To my disappointment, no such protest to the validity of the survey happened and as it turned out the immediate response instead came from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to assist Senator Poe in her feeding program.

Yes it’s the right answer but it’s for the other question.

Without any challenge, are we to assume the SWS data correct? Questions upon question would have to be asked given this revelation. One such question would have to be the actual destination of the conditional cash transfer (Pantawid Pampamilyang Pilipino) the administration’s much cawed winning strategy against poverty. Since 2008 and after availing of almost a billion dollars in loans, 2.3 families in 800 municipalities of 80 provinces are enrolled in the program. PESOS FIFTY BILLION and change I think was appropriated for 2014. How come the number of families under the poverty line seems to be getting bigger? The current DSWD head was the same one in the past administration when it was rolled out sometime 2007, does she have answers?

Oh, she’s going to help in the feeding program, that’s right.

Then there’s the published improvements made since 1991 when official sources quoted 31% as the population under the poverty line. Were all the reports about poverty alleviation for the last 20 years merely hogwash? I have heard of rigid parameters and size of samples that probably explains the differing indication of the NSCB AND SWS surveys but the disparity is ridiculous.  Surely, the government could not have been wrong all these years.

Mang Pandoy, remains the ghost of poverty past, present, future, chronic, transient and near poverty and by all accounts he is here to stay to haunt.

How can sensible programs to alleviate poverty be formulated when basis continue to be wrong information? This is like a shade lighter when somebody thought of repealing the law of demand and supply to counter inflation.

It seems that even government surveys now also populate the universe of things that don’t work if things did work at all before on top of slow rehabilitation programs , trains over-shooting their ramps with doors typically opening while in motions; traffic jams that keep getting worse and civil security continuing to deteriorate into an oxymoron . One can very well call the current situation as organized incompetence. People handling the different portfolio, with the way things are going, look like the result of an acute shortage of qualified personnel. The President has his fingers on every dike of debacle his trusted people have sprung. Tsk.. tsk… blessed with only 10 fingers, I can only surmise how his fingers will look like after 2016.

Manuel L. Quezon, 2nd President of the Philippine Republic, rolls in his grave; I am sure, with the failure  of the succession of leadership to counter poverty in over 50 years of democracy, adhering, as it were, most unfortunately to his famous words, ‘a country governed like hell by Filipinos’.

Newsflash, the Philippines is expected to lead ASEAN in economic growth is the next five years. In truth we are nowhere near the aspiration of the general population for a better life, notwithstanding the credit upgrades and predictions of being the next Asian miracle. The only miracle we can discern is the daily output of 5,000 babies. Where does all that energy come from?

Soon the country MLQ loved so much may not even appear in the map at all. The country is going to be sliced with the Bangsamoro law, however you look at it. Meanwhile some politicians urge for a federal form, more slice and dice. So now the politicians want to institutionalize feudalism and oligarchy. Maybe dividing the country in bite sizes is the answer to all our national woes, who knows?  We might as well give up our territories to the Chinese who have invaded our zones having built structures off the Scarborough shoal. The Chinese made leaps and bounds in poverty eradication compared to the Philippines, in spite of the form of government and its draconian implementation typified by the incident in Tiananmen Square. They might do a better job than the leaders we have. Does democracy really work? The Chinese managed to slash their poverty rate from 80% to less than 20%. The achievement of China in poverty eradication in fact encouraged the UN or some agency to issue a threat of a very optimistic forecast for poverty alleviation world wide by 2015.

Whatever they’re smoking in Washington, I think they’ve had way too much.

You and I know that the only thing our people are good at is politics. Everybody is at it. Still a year and a half early, give or take a few months from the national election and we have politicians already in campaign mode using every available tool. A member of the blue ribbon committee has his ad on TV capitalizing on what he may perceive as a political coup in the bashing of the vice-president’s presidential ambition. I guess he thinks he’s next on bat; subtlety is not his strong suit.

Elections are the only time the citizenry called the electorate can have a voice in governance. After these events, the citizenry becomes hostage to bad governance and still we can’t seem to have learned anything.

Democramata. The nation is permanently on economic intensive care because of its citizens’ almost uncanny ability to choose the wrong leaders. After bloodletting to fill an ocean for democracy, the paradise promised by a land bountiful in resources has inched further away. The succession of leadership failed to curb equality and freedom by clinging to dynasty as its political culture while raising the audacity for corruption and incompetence.

For 2016 the picking is severely thin consisting of bashers, pretenders, coffin dodgers, big spenders, the neurotics, the convicts and the psychotics.

Somebody quoted PNoy as saying that the vice president should run in 2016 for the presidency then manage the country however he deemed fit in response to the diatribes against the administration. I remember former president Estrada saying the same thing with “Magpresidente muna kayo” Is PNoy becoming the ghost of President Estrada past? Since former President Estrada and former President Marcos share traits (both are bar topnotchers, Marcos for the exam to practice law; Estrada for the place where they keep Andy Player Special;  Both were accused of murder, Marcos for Nalundasan while Estrada for murdering the English language), is PNoy fast becoming the ghost of Marcos past?

But then aren’t they the same old, same mold? We have had several presidents from dynasties: DM, Marcos, Cory, Ramos, PNoy, Erap, GMA among them. 75% of people congress and the senate also come from dynasties.

It is alleged that more senators and congressmen are to be charged with pilfering the national treasury in the days to come. These people have been in power too long and think they can get away with just about anything. Democramata. Is democracy is killing our future? Imagine 15 million hungry children.

Thing is, in whatever size and form, organizations need good leadership. We have been most fortunate to know firsthand what good leadership is not. Now we can put the lessons to work.

1.      The noble truth about political bashers is that it is a one trick pony.

2.      The noble truth about dynasty is that their product is not always bad; just that the concept of family member succeeding each other in political position crowds out equality and freedom.

3.      The noble truth about leadership is that it does not come about because of a martyred father and a celebrated mother.

4.      The noble truth about crimes is that sooner than later it will catch up. That move of allegedly bribing senators to impeach a sitting Supreme Court justice for ill-gotten wealth (which senators are in turn now troubled with the same charges) was a sure formula for one of the senator-beneficiaries to squeal.

5.      The noble fourfold path to alleviating poverty includes taking the catholic church view on any matter with more than a grain of salt; somebody must oversee the NCSB work; people should stop watching too much blue ribbon committee hearing; for the legislative bodies to do legislation, the DOJ to prosecute and courts to judge; 

Miriam’s big C and the ongoing Philippine Apolitcalypse

Reading the news about Senator Miriam, I was amused to read the senator’s mother responding (I imagined in the same patented deadpan manner of the senator) with ‘We all have to go sometime’.

Yes, go we all must, sometime.

In politics It’s been a while since any drastic change had been seen in the landscape and even then it’s still the same old, same old: Marcos, Aquino, Macapagal, Angara, Estrada, Binay, Cayetano, Guingona and list goes on with no less than one hundred fifty (150) dynasties lording it over the archipelago for as long as forever.

Something has got to give after all that time and this PDAF scam seem to have started a crack at the political seams. You can almost hear Bob Dylan croon: Come senators, congressmen please heed the call, don’t stand in the doorway; don’t block up the hall; for he who gets hurt would be he who has stalled; there’s a battle outside and it’s raging (1964,Columbia records).

The first batch in the scandal had turned themselves in voluntary, setting the tone for the orderly evaluation and investigation into the scam. If not for anything else, we have to commend senators Revilla and Estrada for facing the charges before them. Never mind the lachrymose, silly, semi-Neanderthal stunt before the hallowed halls of the senate, both had all the chances to fly the coup but chose to man up and stand trial. Former president now Manila Mayor Estrada may have had a hand in what transpired, if not directly, surely by example with the bravado he himself displayed in his own hour of desperation.

This dictates a new brand of statesmanship unlike those displayed by senators Lacson and Honasan. And somebody even made a film based on the Lacson experience as if it had some redeeming value. So the question begging to be asked is will senator Honasan once again turn fugitive? He is on the list in an item I read and any day could be the subject of an arrest warrant. If he runs, do we just say ‘so what’s new?’

On the other hand, will the judiciary complement the gestures by speeding up the trial? How long will the senators suffer the indignities heaped on them if they are truly innocent? It seems like this early, judicial experts are already conditioning the public that the trial is going to take a long, long while.

But how complicated is this case? Isn’t it just a question of did they or didn’t they benefit from misappropriation of public funds. To me it looks as simple as the equation where their assets, including that of their immediate family and trusted associates approximating if not equal to their declared income.

Is it really possible that despite all the check and balance, including the Commission on Audit, Janet Lim-Napoles can merely insert harmonic stupidity in to the progression formula of how to dupe the government and with impunity, had simply walked to the bank in the last ten years or so?

These are interesting times; the citizenry has turned restless weighed down by the general poverty amidst supposed stellar economic performance of the country. (Do you really buy this GNP bullshit?)The biggest source of ‘non-inclusive growth’ immediately obvious is the slave wage dispensed to a population (burdened or gifted?) with a largely uneducated/unskilled labor surplus. Add to this injustice, contractualization along with the blind eye of the regulators thus one doesn’t have to look far why poverty has not moved an inch. I cannot for the life of me understand how the labor force (about 40M) where almost half work in construction have not benefitted from such a bonanza of the massive construction movement resulting to an RFO inventory of over 20,00 units (RFO is an industry on its own if you haven’t heard) in MM alone? In a recent development, some lawmakers are up in arms of how some of our country men working as domestic helpers in Singapore are displayed in a mall and auctioned in a throwback to the days of Caribbean slave traders. Is it any better here?  

Then there is the lack of infrastructure, killer taxes, and a multitude of obstacles and clearances that pour cold water on wanna be entreprenuers.

What about peace and order in the streets? Ask a policeman if you can find one.

From the south, the citizenry is also concerned with the rehabilitation the victims of ‘Yolanda’ where it is largely believed that relief goods have teemed in the billions of dollars but where no tangible action can be discerned. Is there?

Further out, the Chinese are threatening the boundaries of the country leaving people dependent on the sea to suffer and obliterating any chance for the country to be energy independent consequently its citizens out of poverty. The Pabaon scandal in the AFP seemed to have died but its result where we are unable to defend ourselves is much more manifest with the Chinese encounter because of the diversion of funds supposed for the armed force modernization. General Almonte (ret) came out with a piece of advice on how to handle the China crisis (sound like band). I think he said something like a citizen to citizen approach on face book? It read like a joke but if it’s all the hope we have, God help us.

What about the Maguindanao Massacre?

How things are resolved today will shape the future.

Yes even the search for our national artist from whom our culture develops. So why is Joey Smith not nominated?

We know where everything is located and what needs ot be done; the skeleton in the closet, the woods in the hands of illegal loggers, rice with the cartel, drugs everywhere, all the monies in the hands of the Forbes magazine lister, (oh and JLN) and political power in the 150 dynasties scattered around the archipelago. The dysfunction can well be fixed, well maybe not for this generation but surely for the next at least.

Imagine a future where education is free, housing really affordable, food and medicine easily accessible, an impartial and swift judicial system and every citizen enjoying peace.

We might never know if PNoy set out the groundswell for change happening but we are sure he somehow lit the spark. In turn it is now every Pinoy’s duty to see to the institution of change: urge the courts to rule decisively and swiftly on the PDAF scam and other cases; hasten the rehabilitation of Yolanda victims; pass to law the anti-dynasty bill; strict implementation of wage laws with probably another twenty on the list.

There’s a better future ahead, the signs are getting clearer by the day. What we need is for everyone to invest in that vision.

The Blacklists

Like a  Ludlum novel, the plot of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam thickens with the surfacing of different lists of people implicated in the misuse of appropriations. Former Senator, former police chief and former Metrocom operative, now ‘Yolanda’ rehabilitation czar, Panfilo Lacson purportedly has possession of such a list.  Secretary of Justice Leila De Lima allegedly procured one during a meeting with Ms. Janet Napoles just before her well-publicized (a security gaffe I suppose) surgery. And there’s the list of one Sandra Cam, president of an association of whistle blowers.

I don’t think anybody would be surprised if these lists contained almost everybody in government. The surprise probably would come to the political overlords after seeing their vassals doing more business on their own.

One can see the depths of corruption in governance where the population of whistle blowers increased by so many folds so much as to warrant an association. Thing is, aren’t whistle blowers supposed to be ‘below ground’ to protect them from harm. Isn’t an association much like painting a bull's eye on their foreheads? By the way, whatever happened to that guy who blew the whistle on the wholesale eradication of the Kuratong Baleleng claiming it as a rub out?

I could see the dilemma of the justice secretary (no pun intended), the evidence may probably be insufficient at this point so they’re looking at photographs, really? So why reveal the existence of such as a list? As for former Senator Lacson and Ms. Cam, I can only surmise on their intentions.

Should the list really be kilometric and evidences sufficient, what would the government do? Will there be sanctions, suspensions and frozen assets? Will governance be paralyzed or would it improve? Would the Veteran’s hospital be transformed into a penitentiary? As it is, the first batch of those accused have not even been touched. They are flying on holidays or what not, vilified but nonetheless free as birds. There is something wrong with accused and witnesses being able to just skip town. When will those accused ever get their day in court to clear their names? Would Ben Hur Luy reach the age of collecting on his SSS before anything on the PDAF scam really happen? Does the association of whistle blowers include SSS benefits?

When the scam first exploded,  the topic was in chock full coverage in various news reports and talks in the local hang outs, then came the televised blue ribbon with their supposedly slam dunk testimonies, after which the whole affair has now slid to the inside pages with nothing really happening. What new law has been formulated to mitigate misuse of appropriations?

And now we have the lists.

Would the PDAF scam go the way of the Maguindanao Massacre, which proceedings have been on the grind that witnesses and the whistle blowers as I read somewhere, have started to disappear before their testimonies are recounted in court.

However slow the wheels of justice roll, I think the maturity of Philippine electorate will manifest at the 2016 election. The PDAF scam has shown the way of the dynasties, how 2^nd generations continue their predecessor’s indiscretion. 

I hope we learned something.

Massive infrastructure program to alleviate poverty

Following reports indicating poverty on a standstill despite the Philippines gaining much economic ground, I suspected that the current administration would just leave the result of the survey to the ‘Trickle down’ syndrome as past administrations were wont to do. Happily I was wrong, at least on paper. The plan to inject a massive infrastructure program to hasten poverty alleviation reinforces my belief that the heart of the President is in the right place.

To be sure, the strategy is nothing new but the amount, a trillion Pesos, stands impressive. And bolstered by the President’s doggedness like a pit bull on crack, displayed during the impeachment, I am sure the program will develop traction in no time.

Of course, there would be political under tones attached to it but no matter, the plan sounds good.

Ensuring the program success, however- that it reaches the intended beneficiaries- require a nuanced approach. Left to work on the regular protocol, the program would likely be just another money making machine for the superfluously rich. We know the superfluously rich are the ones who engage the government agency. Based on specifications and financial estimates, the capitalists work out the numbers and should margins look insufficient (counting the tong system in place), we all know where the corners would be cut.

Among the things that prevent real impact on poverty alleviation, in the different incarnations of this strategy, is the exploitation of labor. We know this as a fact. ‘Slave wages’ is the bad language of what is politely referred to as the ‘trickle-down effect’ and it persists in the construction industry where laborers are paid way below prescribed legal rates. For all the dizzying pace of real property development in the country (which somewhere I read, sprouted an RFO industry with an inventory of over 20,000), is it not puzzling that poverty has not inched downward.  With construction employing maybe a third of the labor force, half of us living under the poverty line, why wouldn’t living conditions get better for people in Smokey mountain or Parola where labor is normally sourced?

With labor exploitation widespread, it wouldn’t have been much different had big businesses along with government itself actually conspiring to keep labor wages down and people forever chained to destitution. Where are the good guys then?

Instituting measures for compliance, meaning the right wages along with benefits including but not limited to Social Security (SSS), Home Mutual Development Fund (HDMF) and Phil health, to be sure, would be a gargantuan task but the result I am sure would encompass taxation, savings, housing, education and medical care for a bigger population.  And as far as compliance is concerned, I am not talking about mere clearances from the Department of Labor and Employment, SSS, HDMF but constant monitoring on ground zero.

By the way, the news report of the government plan for a massive infrastructure program carried with it the threat from the DPWH that projects would have tighter monitoring and supervision. Given what’s happening on projects rolled out, I can only wish us luck.

While on the subject of tighter monitoring and supervision, it would be for the greater good if projects followed timetables for completion where sanctions are enforced. There should be a requirement to post completion schedules.

The other thing is, normally, project completions are always shy of entirely covered excavations. It is not the exception to find gaping holes right in the middle of the streets. Now how do these contractors get away with something like those instances? Here in Bacoor city, a length of the Aguinaldo highway leading to the bend going to Cavite City is lined with excavations which stench have become unbearable, being part of the sewerage system. Besides that the excavations pose dangers for both pedestrians and motorist.

In another part, the coastal road seems forever in some stage of construction since its opening. A commuter is snagged by the slow transaction in the toll gates then gets caught in the obstruction of construction in the coastal road followed by the humongous clog in Aguinaldo. With travel time from Manila to Bacoor up to three hours, sometime more, can we expect productivity to improve?

Anyway, I hope the projects at last cascade benefits to those left behind, humongous traffic or not.