A different drug not a cure

If you are the type that reads labels on prescription medicines, chances are you’re familiar with the warning or advise: “If symptoms persist after seven days, discontinue use and consult your physician.” Such warnings are there to tell us that the medicine you are taking is not effective, or the medical condition being addressed may be different or more complicated.

To continue using the ineffective medicine would be a waste of valuable time to heal the patient, a waste of money, and potentially increase further complications. When it comes to diseases and pain, we as patients generally pay attention to the warning or the symptoms and do go back to our doctors. Ethical and responsible physicians on the other hand will restudy the patient, prescribe an alternative treatment option or at the very least prescribe better medicines.

Unlike doctors, it seems that several government officials, politicians and policy makers or implementors act more like drug dealers than doctors when it comes to solving serious social maladies especially poverty. For more than a decade, the national government has been riding high on their self-proclaimed success of the 4Ps program where the government gives out welfare checks or ayuda to indigent families that have totaled to billions of pesos.

Because no one else is helping as much, it all looks and sound good and to be fair is highly appreciated by the recipients. Truth be told, the 4Ps program of dole outs helps but it seems not a whole lot. According to data being credited to the Commission on Audit (COA), “4.2 Million 4Ps beneficiaries who have been on the program for seven to 13 years, 90 percent are still below the poverty threshold.”

One would imagine that after seven years, the national government and members of Congress would have had a way of knowing that their “medicine” was not curing the disease but simply addressing the symptoms. I don’t know how the Philippine Congress and the Senate goes about it, but I assumed that when Congress rolls out legislated dole outs or welfare programs, it is based on a time limit as well as an accompanying investigation or research into the effectiveness of the program as well as the deficiencies or areas requiring correction or enhancement.

Given the actual scenario, what Congress had legislated was not the medicine to address poverty but rather a “drug” that did not empower people to get out of poverty or create the environment or system to dramatically reduce poverty incidence. The government created dependency on poverty related dole outs. The question is, who in government or congress is courageous or honest enough to admit the mistake and prescribe the correct solution?

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In like manner, Congress and the Senate passed the law on local government autonomy and gave so much power and authority to governors, mayors and barangay captains. Back in the day, I understood the frustration of Senator Nene Pimentel who was so fed up with the political and financial control exercised by the national government and “Imperial Manila” or the Executive Department a.k.a Malacañang.

The vision of devolution and LGU independence was clearly so inviting that Sen. Pimentel gave it his all. But years later, we are now discovering how imperfect and subject to manipulation devolution is and that the medicine or the cure can be worse than the disease.

Congress passed a law that transferred much of the policy determination, prioritization, funding and implementation to local government officials. It seemed like a quick and easy straight-line solution. What the solution clearly ignored was the multiple differences and conflicts involved.

Local officials are short termers with three years in office; consequently they tend to be “short-sighted” in choosing programs and priorities. Their priorities are often on what pays dividends, creates funds and therefore they prioritize commercial development and urbanization to increase their Internal Revenue Allocation. They would sooner convert agricultural land to residential or commercial just to be able to collect higher taxes than “throw” money on the slow and low yields of farmers.

As a result, many programs and priorities that the national government once had, have been put on the back end by LGUs. Support for education is subject to loyalty checks among teachers, principals and often funding is kept to minimum and necessary. Many inputs that were once covered by the national government are no longer on the table especially for public health disease programs and agricultural inputs.

A former cabinet secretary of President Rodrigo Duterte once wailed that devolution pushed health, education and agriculture back into the dark ages. Many legislators in the Upper and Lower house have recognized this serious mistake but have washed their hands by always claiming that local government officials don’t want the law amended. In other words, Hands Off!

Sorry but this is a blatant lie repeated by congressmen who are in bed with governors and mayors who they rely upon for votes every election year. It is political incest at the local government level. I recently pointed out to a legislator that Congress has the power to make or unmake legislation.

It was Congress that wrote the defective laws for 4Ps and local government devolution, and it is Congress that can introduce the necessary corrections to these laws. We are not talking about taking away local government autonomy, we are talking about correcting the deficiencies in the law or coming out with better laws. If Congress cures the laws or come up with better laws to cure the problems then the patients, the Filipino people will get better!