Beef to replace pork

PUNCHLINE

Ike Seneres

As it was originally invented by the Congress of the United States, the pork barrel was meant to fund local development needs that the federal government could not “see”, pursuing the legal fiction that the local congressmen are in a better position to “see” what the broader body of lawmakers could not “see”.

Bowing to public pressure, the national government has announced the abolition of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), also known as the pork barrel. With that decision, perhaps a new legal fiction would emerge that would say that here in the Philippines, our own Congress would be in a good position to “see” all local development needs, so much so that it would be able to fund all of these needs through the General Appropriations Act (GAA).

Some years back, the name and reputation of the so called “civil society” was tainted to the point that it has practically become a derogatory term. Sad to say, the same sad fate might have come upon the so called “non-government organizations” (NGOs), because their names and reputations have been unfortunately damaged by the recent pork barrel scam.

I feel sad whenever the subject of “damaged institutions” would come up, because to me, it seems to bring the stench of death. It would seem now that the so called “civil society” and the so called NGOs could now be considered as “damaged institutions”. On my part however, I would rather say that these two institutions are very much alive, even if they have been heavily wounded.

Looking at it from a more optimistic perspective, it could not be denied that almost every government agency has a local office in each locality, sometimes all the way down to the municipal level (the towns and cities). Even the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) that is supposed to be only a national planning agency has local offices everywhere.

With so many local offices of national government agencies that are present in practically all localities, it would be very difficult to imagine that our Congress would not be able to “see” whatever local development needs there are, or there would be at the local levels. That would be tantamount to saying that the several thousands of pairs of eyes of the government employees living and working at the local levels could not “see” what the lone pair of eyes of the district congressmen are supposed to “see”.

If we sort through the rubbish, we should be able to see that the Medium Term Municipal Development Plans (MTMDPs) of the municipalities (again the towns and cities) should be the clear and transparent basis for identifying all local development needs no matter what, no matter where. In theory (at least in theory), all MTMDPs are supposed to be in line with the Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTDP).

In theory (also in theory), the civil society organizations (CSOs) and the NGOs are not (were not) supposed to make any money from the pork barrel, even if that seems to be the general impression. As it was reported in the news, the NGOs are now “out” of the pork barrel system, a report that seems to be contradictory; because that would mean that they are “out” of a system that is already abolished.

As I see it now, this apparent “cleansing” of the pork barrel system is actually the best time for the CSO and the NGOs to “come in” and participate in the clear and transparent process of planning for, and implementing the MTMDPs. They could do that by becoming very active in the Municipal Development Councils (MDCs), a right and a duty that is given to them by the Local Government Code (LGC).

If any of the MDCs are looking for a long term solution to the problem of widespread poverty in their municipalities, they should look into the empowerment of local business enterprises. The reasons for that are very simple. Local businesses create local employment, and they boost the local economy. Because of these reasons, it may be a good idea to replace the PDAF with a Business Enterprises Empowerment Fund, or BEEF for short.

As it is now, only the Internal Revenue Allocations (IRAs) are subject to the interventions of the MDCs. Given the fact that the IRAs of the municipalities are always lacking, it may be a good idea to transfer the disposition of the PDAF (or the BEEF?) to the MDCs, to add to the IRAs, in other words.

In these days when Google Search and Google Earth is about as common as street food, it is very difficult to imagine that many municipalities still do not have their own Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software , a critical resource that should be used in the preparation of their own local Land Use Plans (LUPs).

In theory (so much for theory), the installation and use of GIS software and LUPs would enable all municipal and provincial government officials to “see” all of their local development needs, assuming of course that they would want to “see” these in the first place.

          

For purposes of simplification and standardization, how I wish that all local officials would just agree to all towns 

and cities as “municipalities”.

After all, this seems to be the common collective term that would refer to both of them. Add to that the fact that even the people in the cities would still refer to their city halls as their “municipios”.

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