Congressmen must help solve deficit

Be part of the solution, not the problem. The reminder is posted in many government offices. But not at the Batasan. There, in the midst of a burgeoning budget deficit, congressmen are ranting about delayed releases of their pork barrels and raving to unseat the Speaker for not acting on it.

Ironically, the leader of the oust-Joe de Venecia move is not only tainted with the extortionate Gang of Five label. He also delayed the confirmation of Natural Resources Secretary Heherson Alvarez for making a forest concessionaire pay P420 million in overdue taxes.

The bratty attitude of the congressman is no different from that of Abu Sayyaf terrorists. In Sulu, the Islamic extremists are demanding that the AFP pull out pursuing troops before they think of releasing hostages. At the Batasan, the congressman and his cohorts are demanding that Malacañang issue their pork checks before they take up the 2003 budget. For them, it doesn’t matter that the government already had breached in July its year-long projected deficit spending of P130 billion. Nor does it matter that the BIR and Customs are dismally short of collection targets because of corruption, massive tax cheating and smuggling. Just hand over the checks, they yell while compounding the deficit problem instead of helping solve it?

Now why should congressmen help in revenue collections when their job is to legislate? Because it’s everyone’s problem, that’s why. If congressmen will bother to read the papers, they’ll find out that aside from the Joey Marquez-Kris Aquino romance boiling over, businessmen also are getting worried about recessionary and inflationary effects of government borrowings that the deficit foists. They’ll discover that government is finding it more and more difficult to deliver the most basic of services: public education and health care, peace and order and garbage collection. Besides, while the congressmen are supposed to legislate, they also intrude on executive work through their long-questioned pork barrels.

If only for that, they should help find ways to improve revenue collections.

This year’s pork barrel awards each congressman P35 million from the Priority Development Assistance Fund and another P35 million from the Public Works Fund. Each senator gets P130 million from the two windows. The total pork of Congress amounts to P9 billion, half of which it already has spent.

Close to 90 percent of the P780-billion budget is alloted for salaries of the bureaucracy and automatic debt repayment (of past loans incurred from past deficits). Government has barely 10 percent, or P78 billion, for infrastructures; that is, new roads, bridges and markets. Congress takes more than a tenth of that P78 billion for pork barrels in aid of reelection. Yet the BIR are Customs are short of collection targets to date by P37 billion and P11 billion, respectively.

Congressmen say that their pork barrels help spur economic activity in their respective districts. This year’s pork, they aver, is especially crucial because it will be used for El Niño preparations. Yeah, right. It’s an open secret that 60 percent of a congressman’s allotment ends up in his pocket.

Not all congressmen are pork bellyachers. Bataan’s Enrique Garcia, while constantly twitting the BIR and Customs for ineptitude and long-delayed computerization, only last week taught the bureaus a simple trick on how to avoid theft of tax checks by booking them as demand deposits in collecting banks. Negros Oriental’s Herminio Teves is suggesting other ways to improve collection efficiency. Deputy Speaker for Visayas Raul Gonzalez of Iloilo is cautioning his colleagues that they can’t squeeze blood from stone in crying for pork releases from an empty treasury. At the other chamber, Senate President Franklin Drilon is setting an inquiry into resigned BIR chief Rene Bañez’s plaint that certain revenue officials deliberately had sabotaged collections in the first half of 2002.

Congressmen can do more to help. They can point to Customs and BIR the businessmen in their locales who are known to be evading taxes. They can turn in their political rivals, for all the public cares, so long as they have some leads and evidence for the taxmen to work on. Is that too much to ask?

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My piece on the Pagbabago Movement (Gotcha, 17 and 19 Aug. 2002) had me deluged with queries on how to join the reformists. You can e-mail them at [email protected]. Or call the secretariat at (02) 687-7481 and 687-7482 (fax). Or write to The Pagbabago Movement, Unit 718, City & Land Megaplaza, Garnet Road corner ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City 1605.

You can also contact any of the founders directly: Neric Acosta, Ella Antonio, Trina Belamide, Marissa Bondoc, Niña Bustamante, Rina Jimenez David, Guido Delgado, JP Fenix, Calvin Genotiva, Bart Guingona, Cielito Habito, Vince Lazatin, Alan Ortiz, Francis Pangilinan, Jim Paredes, Nicky Perlas, Vincent and Charrie Perlas, Ramon Marcos Pernia, Essa Remoquillo, Marian Pastor Roces, Chito Salazar, Lorrie Tan.

Of the numerous inquiries, one out of five came from overseas Filipinos who want to help complete, through nonviolent means, the country’s many unfinished revolutions. Pagbabago founders say they will form nodes (chapters) abroad for them. Copies of the Kartilya (preamble) and membership forms are also being printed for a public launching sometime soon.

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Two terrorists are chatting. One of them is flipping through pictures in his wallet. "This is my eldest, he’s a martyr. Here’s my second son, he’s also a martyr."

After a pause, the second terrorist says wistfully, "Ah, they sure blow up so fast, don’t they?"

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You can e-mail comments to [email protected].