‘Beware of false prophets’

Perhaps it was wrong timing, coming as it did during the Lenten season, when newly installed Pope Francis begins his Vatican duties promoting the welfare of the poor.

This is the case of the presidential veto on the Congress-approved Magna Carta for the Poor. The words for the title of the proposed legislation sounded so noble and magnanimous. Thus, there was such bitter crying over it when it got presidential veto. Certainly, however, the reasons for the veto are well meaning.

As it is now, it was obviously crafted and designed to boost the election bids of the members of the 15th Congress in time for the coming May 13 midterm polls. It was passed and approved by the 15th Congress before they adjourned session last Feb. 9, or a few days before the campaign period for the national elections started. A majority of our lawmakers are either up for re-election or vying for local government posts while some are running for the Senate.

Surprising, or should I say unusual, for a very populist legislative bill that our lawmakers worked on and completed, the Magna Carta for the Poor was done without much publicity. All proposed legislation go through the process of public hearings in Congress. So presumably, all concerned government agencies were consulted in the congressional public hearings, not to mention non-government organizations such as urban poor groups.

The existence of the proposed Magna Carta for the Poor came to public knowledge only after it was vetoed by President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III. I first heard of the bill only after it was already vetoed.

And to think the impact of this proposed bill would have benefited more than one-fourth, or 26.5 percent of the estimated 100 million Filipinos who live below the poverty line. This is according to government data culled as of 2009. By government’s definition, the poor comprise those earning below P7,017 a month for a family of five, or below P16,841 per capita a year.

The Magna Carta for the Poor was among the last batches of legislation forwarded by Congress to Malacañang for the President’s approval and signing into law. Senate president pro-tempore Jinggoy Estrada, Pia Cayetano, Kiko Pangilinan, and Antonio Trillanes IV are the principal sponsors of the Senate version of this bill. Pangilinan chaired the Senate committee on social justice, which conducted the public hearings.

The House version of the measure was reportedly pushed in Congress by left-leaning party-list groups. From the records of the House of Representatives, its principal authors include the likes of Alagad party Rep. Rodante Marcoleta; Cebu Rep. Rachel Del Mar and Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone, who are both members of P-Noy’s Liberal Party.   

In his veto message to Congress, P-Noy cited specifically two paragraphs in Section 4, on the basic rights of the poor which Palace legislative advisers found rather like a “mission impossible” for the government to comply with. It states: “The poor shall have the following rights, the enjoyment of which is an essential step towards poverty alleviation: a) the right to food; b) the right to employment and livelihood; c) the right to quality education; d) the right to shelter; e) the right to basic health services and medicines. The government shall, as a matter of duty and obligation, provide the requirements, conditions, and opportunities for the full enjoyment of these rights of the poor and which the poor can demand as a matter of right.’”

A reading of the entire Magna Carta for the Poor would show that this measure is nothing but an enumeration and compilation of other existing laws. Sadly, many of these laws were among those approved by Congress but remain unfunded and therefore unimplemented.

President Aquino noted the funding of the various projects that would be required to implement the bill is estimated to cost way beyond the country’s budget this year at P2.06 trillion.

Had he signed into law this Magna Carta for the Poor, the President conceded, the government risks being sued for unfulfilled promises.

As usual, P-Noy was just resorting to hyperbole to dramatize his point. As far as I know, there has been no such jurisprudence yet in the Philippine courts of such a case. But the problem really is that many of our lawmakers think we are a welfare state that has the wherewithal to provide social services to all for free.

Sure, we can afford to have a welfare state if everybody pays the correct amount of taxes. But didn’t P-Noy himself bluntly tell last week the biggest Filipino-Chinese businessmen’s group in the country that most, if not all of their members, do not even pay the correct taxes?

The President, however, sought to assuage that this veto does not mean the idea of coming up with a Magna Carta for the Poor is totally trashed. In its present version, the Magna Carta for the Poor was already thrown to the Palace trash bin. To apparently soften the impact to the public of junking such pro-poor measure, P-Noy disclosed he has ordered a Cabinet Cluster to draft a new version that the Palace can submit to the next Congress.

Certainly, the new version must meet the requirements set forth by P-Noy that it should be realizable and in conformity with international standards. The Chief Executive pointed out the Philippines is a signatory to the International Covenant on Economic Culture and Social Rights that implements a progressive or staggered implementation of the rights of the poor.

Still enjoying double-digit popularity rating, P-Noy can afford to be brutally frank on these things he needs to get across the public’s psyche. He said: “If I sign this into law even if we know the government cannot meet it, I am fooling my bosses which I cannot do… In other words, I could have signed this bill to look good, but I know the government can’t live up to it.”

We can live with that kind of presidential candor. It is better that way than sweet-talked to by people who make grandiose promises to solve the country’s poverty and empty rhetoric that won’t feed the hungry.

A fair warning from the King James Bible tells us: “Beware of false prophets — who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”