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.