Decentralization, A Way Out. Part 9

I think I have to explain my obsession for local autonomy. Suggestions that require a cha-cha are at best amusing; at worst, fearsome. Let us not forget that a cha-cha may not necessarily turn out to be of our liking. All other proposals to improve our lot such as cooperatives, food production and livelihood programs may be addressed by local autonomy. Electoral reforms and good governance will strengthen it.

If it’s a meaningful change we want, we must start with education. For instance, do local government officials know the extent of their powers? If they knew, they could and would stop licking Gloria’s heels and demand the release of the money due them. If they don’t protect their rights, who will? How can they ask for more powers when they can’t even use what they already have? Why entrust Gloria with anti-poverty programs when they can do it more effectively?

A million thanks to Ed Aurelio 'Dng' Reyes, for bringing up one very important point – the Local Government Code is not being fully implemented. PGMA withholds LGU’s IRA share; its release is supposed to be automatic. Congress all but ignored the Code; they are mandated to visit it every five years to keep it dynamic. I also agree with the examples he cited.

Let us first make local autonomy work before talking of federalism. How? I cannot be too emphatic about this: education. Let the people know what local autonomy is. I’m sure they would go for it if they knew. I tried to contact Senator Pimentel about this long before he went crazy about federalism but his email address yielded nothing.

I searched for arguments in favor of federalism, and did not find a single claim that cannot be addressed by local autonomy. While there may be a debate between pros and cons on federalism, I see a no contest between federalism and local autonomy. While others may view federalism as the solution to the ills of our country, I see local autonomy as federalism, without its costs.

Decentralization, A Way Out. Part 8

It is but normal for one to be shocked by the cold blooded murder done by bank robbers recently. But for Secretary Raul Gonzales to react so methinks the lady doth protests too much. There was this prostitute who, for fear of being discovered, cried ouch rather too loudly and too often.

Actually, the good Justice Secretary need not go into dramatics to hide his apathy. Hindi siya nag-iisa. We too are now inured to the violence that hounds us day in and day out. Just to prove this point hereunder is a piece inspired Neale Donald Walsch, author of several best selling books.

Allowing people to go hungry is a form of violence. We make people go hungry by stealing millions from the government through a process we call graft and corruption. We further make people go hungry when we block investigations intended to prevent such crimes and punish all those responsible for it. Investigators make people hungrier and angrier when they do not do it right. We allow people to go hungry when we refuse to lift a finger to prevent or assuage such hunger.

Placing life-saving drugs and the finest medical care out of reach of millions is a form of violence. For several decades we have been guilty of this form of violence. We are even guiltier with each day of delay in the signing of the bill into law that would somehow address this problem.

Underpaying laborers while taking huge front office profits is a form of violence. No comment.

Mistreating, underpaying, denying promotions to, and mutilating females is a form of violence. No comment.

Racial prejudice is a form of violence. No comment.

Child abuse, child labor, child slavery, child prostitution, child trafficking, and child soldiering is a form of violence. Many infants do not receive the nutrition they need to develop their brains. They will be societies' liabilities when they grow up, if they grow up at all. Our starving school children are packed in ill-equipped along with a hungry teacher in what we pass off as an educational process. Therefore we have so many high school graduates who are illiterates. This happens because our loans continue piling up, and do not go where it should.

The death penalty is a form of violence. Just a reminder for those who want it revived.

Denying civil rights to people because of their sexual preference or their religion or their ethnicity is a form of violence. Denying civil rights for whatever reason is a form of violence. More so if we kill with impunity to do it.

Creating and maintaining a worldwide society in which exploitation, oppression, and injustice are commonplace is a form of violence. No comment.

Ignoring suffering is as much a form of violence as inducing it. In other words, apathy is also a form of violence.

And if we may add one too, allowing senior citizens to fall in endless lines at the GSIS for needed services, even as it ignores urgent pleas through email, is a form of violence.

While Gloria may be guilty of these forms of violence, Congress, is also guilty by omission. It allowed her to maintain and use so much power when it could have made the legislation that could have curb it. Now Senator Pimentel would poise upon the nation the scourge of federalism though he knowa very well that all he had to do was push for greater local autonomy to reap the benefits of the strange and dangerous order he spouses.

Decentralization, A Way Out. Part 7

About the only good thing we see in the Senator Pimentel's resolution calling for a Constituent Assembly to move towards federalism is that it opens up a dialogue that may eventually lead us to see the light. While we agree with the challenges it seeks to address, the solution suggested is downright unacceptable. The proposed system is so expensive and unwieldy that it may do more harm than good. How much would cost to maintain 11 State Officials and employees? How would it function?

And it is an exercise in futility. Can anyone imagine a plebiscite voting to have 70 senators and 350 representatives? It would rather vote for the abolition of both houses! Maybe the idea would not be so bad if the alternative is not so workable, not so inexpensive and not so effective. But it is!

And what might it be? Local autonomy, plain and simple! Review the Local Government Code of 1991 authored by Senator Pimentel himself. The answers are all there. We doubt if senility or ulterior motives it all, but we can't understand why the father of local autonomy would spouse federalism rather than decentralization. Where was he all the time that the Code needed to be updated?

It's been 17 long years and the League of Provinces are still pushing for amendments! It is supposed to be dynamic. It is so provided in the code itself: a visit every five years. Did Congress do what it is supposed to do with the Code? No. And its author was too busy with the ambition of his son to even let out a whimper. Who knows that the adjustments that might have produced effective leaders of LGU's, rather than heel licker who wouldn't dare question Gloria abuses even if they themselves are the victim.

Our failure to devolve more powers enabled Gloria to use and abuse all the powers given to her. And who can stop any of her successors from doing the same thing? This is why we appeal to all senators and congressmen. Get real. Stop this nonsense about federalism. Listen to the League of Provinces. Maybe what they want is not even enough. Put safeguards and guidelines, but give it. Give them now as much as you would to federalism. It could be our sure and easy way out. Also Gloria's. Do it now while we still can.

Decentralization, A Way Out. Part 6

Failure to launch or being in a bottleneck implies that we’re stuck somewhere. It’s not anything just like that. We are in a quicksand. We did not stagnate for the last 25 years. We kept on sinking down and down. In the race among Asian nations we miserably fell behind because we move slowly, backwards.

EQ, the original brand, was still well-off; he could afford a golden bowl without having to steal. It all started when, irked by haughty American meddlers, RM ordered them to speak in Tagalog; he was killed in a mysterious plane crash. Buy Filipino, CPG urged; foreigners bought by the millions, Filipinas mostly. DM devalued the peso; her daughter brought it down to its lowest actual value. He adopted a floating rate; she simply made it float away through globalization. FM promised that we shall be great again; he made us regret again.

We complained of galunggong day in and day out; Cory cured our nausea by placing it beyond our reach. FVR drew illusions of a tiger economy; now we are being eaten up by one who had long been sleeping. ERAP is truly for the mahihirap; he started making us all as his beloved. GMA simply continued the process at a more frenzied pace. She promised more food on our table; now she squanders billions trying to put back some rice on our plates.

If it’s any consolation though she made us No.1, in corruption; and MLQ got his wish, a government run like hell by us. The downward trend cannot be stopped by limiting our debt payments, but by limiting our debts. This is not a question of semantics but of strategy. We are not reneging in our commitments. It’s just that we have to live within our means.

If we have a debt cap we would be forced to look into our resources at hand. How could the government provide basic services if the taxes it collects are used to pay debts? We prioritize debt servicing only because we are allowed to borrow as much as we can. More money flows in as loans than the amount we lose via amortization, so we inevitably sink deeper and deeper into indebtedness.

If we had a debt cap the CTE-NBN deal would not have been possible. PCIJ would not have reported that 7 out of 10 ODA projects reviewed failed to deliver because probably there would be no such rich fodder for graft and corruption. Maybe because of limited number and amount, every proposal could be scrutinized and guarded more carefully.

Viewed from this point, Congress must take a break from travels abroad and from Gloria praising or bashing and pass a debt cap that would prevent GMA and her successors from doing what she has been doing. Who knows that by trying to live within our means we could be more conscious of our civic duties and begin to be less corrupt and less prolific? Having less money for importation, maybe then we can start producing more rice and more goods for our own use, at least.

We understand Congress’ reluctance to a debt cap. It would mean lesser money to go around. How could it fund development projects without incurring debts? How could the government finance its bloated bureaucracy and voracious lawmakers? It could. All that is needed is for them to involve the people through the local government units.

We are a nation of talents and resources just waiting to be tapped. We have existing systems and structure. We need only strengthen them. For this we do not need to amend the constitution. We only have to go for a stronger local autonomy.

Decentralization, A Way Out. Part 5

Some people suggest that, since Malacañang's APP program is nothing but a costly propaganda gimmick for the administration, it instead be used to teach the poorest of the poor how to fish. This is a tall order.

How can we tell desperate people how to fish when fishermen themselves are starving? And I do not just refer to the fishermen along Manila Bay, Laguna Lake and in provincial waters. Look at the PUB, PUJ and taxi drivers nationwide. Look at the former workers of the once flourishing garment and shoe industry in Taytay, Rizal, in Marikina City. Aren't they all in the same sinking boat where survival, not fishing is of utmost concern?

People will go fishing if the water's not murky, or if no storm's abrewing or if there's fish in the waters. Frogs just flourish by themselves when conditions in a pond are favorable. People too will, and unlike frogs they may choose to multiply goods, not their kind. Gloria bashing and search for truth only describes the pond. It does not make it more livable.

A point will be reached when the truth may cause desperation, rather than positive action as when we realize that the ZTE-NBN deal is just the tip of an iceberg of corruption. What would you do if your realize that the pond you live in is wider and is more polluted than the Pasig river?

I admire the guts of Sen. Pimentel for proposing something which he thinks would alter the conditions of the pond even if it might turn out to be not be a very sensible idea. It came just when I gave up trying to contact him. I just wanted him to keep his local government code alive and kicking. Now that he is too preoccupied with a preposterous idea, who can I turn to?

There is nothing but dead silence from our senators. Half of them are too poorly funded that they do not even have a staff to acknowledge mails. The other half lead by Senator Pimentel just bounces back undelivered. They simply cut their ties with reality. At least Senator Gordon has people who refer us to his own site. This is why I just can’t buy the obsession by some supposedly knowledgeable sectors to assign sloths by region. Bicol has five and it is as poor and as neglected as any region could be.

Cha-cha will have its time, but for now I just want more local autonomy in our country. Not that I feel comfortable with LGU's ability to handle more power and resources. It's just that it's easier to train and police them than Imperial Gloria or any of her successors.

Decentralization, A Way Out. Part 4

The CBCP’s call for communal action that it itself dropped amidst public outcry of vagueness and timidity when the CTE-NBN issue was at its hottest point now just might turn out to be the best path after all. At least, it is a lot preferable to Cardinal Sin’s forthright call to the streets. People power only aggravated the problem, instead of addressing it.

That we were a lot better off before EDSA 1 and 2 is an observation that only those who are in power might dare dispute. This, along with the grim specter of anarchy, a civil war, military junta or a communist take-over, forces many of us to grin and bear it with the luckiest bitch while nervously praying that the 2010 elections finds us all still intact.

But, come to think of it. Elections never bring relief, only false hopes that last for a year at most. Alas for the oppressed majority, elections differ not at all from people power. It is perhaps this predicament that draws us to other options. Cha-cha, for one, is considered even if we have to dance to a cacophony of sounds under the baton of a usurper who obviously seeks an extension of evil. An unlikely knight in rusty armor who comes to revive her fading hopes, albeit unwittingly perhaps, is drawing much attention.

Senator Nene Pimentel correctly suggests that our problem arose from too much power and resources lodged in the Presidency. He wants some of it devolved. No more shall our fortunes or misfortunes rest on a woman or a man. Fine! There’s just one small hitch though. His proposal carries with it its own death sentence – 70 Senators and 350 Congressmen. How insensitive can one be?

How ironic indeed that the Local Government Code of 1991 he himself authored is capable of giving the benefits of federalism without its costs. The Code itself mandates that it be visited every five years. It provides for dynamism yet it’s been 17 years since its approval but the League of Governors still struggles to have it amended. What does this show? That Congress, including the good Senator himself, was never too keen about giving more powers to local governments! Perhaps, it has yet to see its full import.

We think that Senator Pimentel is agonizing. The formula slept with him for too long. Now he wants to make up for lost time through the cha-cha that he used to oppose vehemently. We understand. Ganyan talaga ang mga taong bagong gising. Wala pa sa sarili. He can recoup faster if he let his son take care of his own ambitions. It’s time the Code is updated to suit the challenge of the times. It’s time for the old man to sit with the League of Provinces or any other concerned party. We need his expertise and true advocacy, not the heel licking ULAP and League officials.

Communal action goes beyond Gloria bashing and search for truth. It seeks dialogs, not impulsive action. How was it that she was able to freely do her thing? Was it because we failed to pass the laws that could have curbed her powers? Was it because we were not vigilant enough and failed to act on the little things that could have meant a lot, like the PNP’s inability to serve a warrant of arrest to a high profile and potentially voluble convict who finds safe haven under a fetid skirt? Not Garci, stupid! He’s too big for us.

What now? What must we do after the EDSA option failed, or while it simmers? Shall we go the way of Senator Pimentel? Or, have we other ideas? We now rage for communal action. Will CBCP pick up the pieces and provide the much needed leadership, if only to regain its relevance? Its call is obviously inspired. Let no man or woman put it asunder. Or do we just wait for the bubble to burst?

Decentralization, A Way Out. Part 3

I think that Senator Pimentel’s pitch for federalism is well within CBCP’s call for communal action. He wants to go beyond Gloria bashing. He does not want to just wait for a 2010 or earlier PGMA exit. He has proposed a course of action. He may be in the right path.

Any change of leadership will bring no relief for as long as the conditions that enabled her to do what she did remain. She can borrow as much as she can, and mortgage our future. She controls the purse, even of Congressmen and Senators. She can import billions of pesos worth of rice and channel it to favored traders. She can order Quedancor to finance her pet projects. She can control the distribution of fertilizers. She can enter into secret deals. She can get away with murder.

The list of what she can do, and did is almost endless. Why wouldn't her successor do the same?

Senator Pimentel probably proposed federalism to curb these powers, and empower autonomous states to pursue their own development programs. Surely, he will not lack for followers more so because he dangles P100 billion in what he calls a Federal Equalization Fund. But his idea can only be done through a cha-cha, and once a con-con or a con-ass is convened he will have no control over it. What then is he trying to do? Joining forces with PGMA? Unwittingly perhaps?

If the idea of federalism is the solution to over concentration of powers in the Presidency, then he has himslef to blame for the problem. Well, he can always say he was distracted by his son’s ambition so he failed to see that the benefits of federalism, without its costs had lain in hands for too long. I am referring to the Local Government Code of 1991 which he himself authored.