A government of marshmallows

We are a country where government agencies have conducted tons of surveys, written countless reports, proposals, recommendations and blueprints. Our public servants have all the reasons in the world to give to attest to the fact that they have done their best. If this is true, then why are we still in sinking?

I can’t get over the Cagayan de Oro and Compostela Valley tragedies. These are painful reminders of how our government works. It has allowed ‘natural’ calamities to make us live in more misery without good systems put in place. I’m sure you know for a fact that the CDO and Compostela Valley disasters were not totally natural disasters. They were more man-made than God sent. It reminds me of the other tragedies we had in the past mostly all man-made and encouraged by city or provincial officials due to corrupt practices like the ships sinking, ships colliding, buses colliding and floods submerging cities and towns.

I hope the DENR, DILG, LGUs and all those involve get punished for allowing these mishaps to happen. Year after year tragedies like these happen and those culprits are never penalized. When will things improve? I say NEVER. As long as we have a government of marshmallows, our lives (our safety, our security and even our pockets – lagay/kotong system in almost all bureaus) will continue to be threatened just because our leaders and public servants have been too weak to fight for our rights. Their number one agenda should be to protect us. Why are they protecting their own interest? This seems to be the same issue we have with Chief Justice Corona whose impeachment trial starts today.

Anyway, after every drama we will always hear the same words uttered by local and national officials – “Who me?” And they will continue to pass the buck to the innocent. Then, they will scratch their heads like chickens do and say, “We need this, and we need that!” Susmariosep!

What a country! Sure it’s more fun to dig the dead with your bare hands in the Philippines. How primitive can you be? I was amazed and appalled to find rescuers practically working with their bare hands to recover both the living and the dead from beneath the rubbles. Is this progress? Throwing the dead in piles and allowing unidentified men to handle a secured area without a cordon?

Of course, the army, the Red Cross and many NGOs were there in full force. They all had the same look in their faces – pity, frustration and helplessness. Onlookers and bystanders wept through all the misery but more so, we wept not really because of the dead but more because of our pitiful situation.

We wept because we didn’t have many trained paramedics to rescue the people. The rescuers had no uniforms and did not wear the proper gear. We wept because we didn’t have the proper equipment to detect if people were still alive or dead. We did not have cutters to break down the walls or to cut the logs that trapped victims. We wept because we saw people digging out the living and the dead with their bare hands, using crude equipment on the rescue mission. Yes, it’s more fun in the Philippines because these are things only barbarians do … an adventure indeed!

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Late last year I wrote about why our water bill is so expensive these days. Since 2009, our water bills have been continuously escalating, much to the dismay of the general public. Of course the water companies will always have justifications for the water rate hikes. While it is commendable to see them trying to improve the water pipes in the metropolis and upgrade their internal systems, it is also frustrating to see the charges that are way too high!

Since the 1997 privatization, MWSS has allowed a five-fold rise in water rates and even authorized advance collections. It also allowed dubious infrastructure costs (including some that were never completed) to be made part of funds to be “recovered” to justify the rate increases. MWSS also failed to collect concession fees of P8.5 billion from Maynilad then had to obtain a $150,000,000 loan to cover an operational cash shortage which the government had to pay off this year. And yet, with so much cash available to MWSS and its concessionaires, only 60% of Metro Manila has water service although concession agreements (CAs) called for 100% coverage by 2007. Worse, less than 25% of sewerage improvements specified in the CAs have been done. And yet, former Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo allowed an extension of the concession from 2022 to 2037 without the benefit of any public hearing. Now, we are suffering the consequence of such decision. We are left in a quandary as to why there is a need to increase the water rates. These ‘marshmallows’ in government service better stop their greed.

By the way, it is interesting to note who these MWSS Trustees were during GMA’s time – Agnes Devanadera, Alberto Agra, Virgilio Angelo and Ferdinand Mahusay – all characters connected to questionable anomalies. Could it be possible then that there are still other MWSS Trustees whose names will remind us of more crimes that are yet to be solved?

The fact is that even before Cagayan de Oro and Iligan City ran out of clean water due to typhoon Sendong MWSS had already overspent at least P234 million on its approved 2010 budget? And what’s more disturbing is that, the overspent budget according to the Department of Budget and Management, stemmed from the payment of benefits and allowances which had already been rejected in the MWSS’ approved budget for lack of legal basis. What message then is MWSS trying to send out to the public?

Last year, the signing of the GOCC Governance Act of 2011 that sought to control excessive allowances and bonuses of appointed officials was a concrete effort by the Aquino administration to curtail graft and corruption in government-owned companies. However, cases against corrupt executives have yet to be filed in court.

Reports about irregularities at the MWSS keep bubbling up to the surface. Mainstream media and other watchdogs should note these reports rather than help in a cover-up. People, especially water consumers in Metro Manila, are waking up, as witnessed by two lightning pickets staged by an organization named Water for All Refund Movement, Inc. (WARM) during the Christmas break.

There was supposed to be a dialog between MWSS and WARM last January 6, 2012 to discuss the rate increase which is fast becoming a fait accompli unless COA takes action. I wonder what happened to that dialog. Did both parties reach a common resolution to the issue? The public ought to know what transpired in the discussion.

For as long as water and sewerage services are sub-par and MWSS and its two concessionaires continue to disregard the law in implementing rate hikes, water will continue to finance the excesses and personal greed of our corrupt officials. Of course we all know that this is not only happening at MWSS. It is happening everywhere in government service right under our very noses.

This is precisely why I call it a government of ‘marshmallows’. How I wish the majority of our public servants who do the daily grind and work hard, speak up. We need to help this country move up by getting rid of these lousy officials who only know how to work for themselves!