EDITORIAL - Abolish them

There was one good proposal from Congress and Malacañang this week. In an effort to promote austerity amid the economic slowdown, the government plans to abolish 32 task forces, commissions, committees and other agencies or merge them with the appropriate departments. The move, according to the House appropriations committee, could save taxpayers nearly P1 billion in 2002. To minimize dislocation of employees, the House of Representatives has agreed to a one-year phaseout of the agencies.

Among the numerous offices attached to Malacañang alone are the Inter-Agency Committee on Intellectual Property Rights, the Philippine International Film Television Office and the National Program for Unification and Development Council. Many of the offices have functions that overlap with regular agencies. Although funding for these special offices is taken from public coffers, their existence is known to only a handful of people. For 2002, the proposed budget for these special bodies amounts to P967 million, P22 million higher than the allocation this year.

Will the abolition of these offices mean an end to the creation of task forces, committees and commissions that rarely do anything except waste taxpayers’ money? A number of these offices are used merely to give away sinecures to friends and political allies of those in power. Others are created to emasculate regular offices, usually those that are headed by individuals hostile to the administration.

The controversial Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, now defunct, was tailor-made for Panfilo Lacson, who could not immediately become national police chief because of pending criminal cases against him. President Arroyo herself has not been immune to the practice: she has created a National Anti-Crime Commission headed by her justice secretary, and a Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission which she chairs. Despite the creation of these bodies, the peace and order situation remains a problem.

Worse, a number of these bodies have outlived their usefulness. Most of these offices should have been abolished a long time ago. After deciding which agencies should be scrapped, the government should also start streamlining its system of creating such bodies, making sure that offices won’t be set up to replace those that are abolished. A more judicious system could save the nation millions in badly needed funds.