Navel-gazing

Of course the government doesn’t have funds for wage subsidies, as suggested by pa-pogi lawmakers. There’s no appropriation in the 2024 national budget. The government doesn’t even have enough funds to pay for decent pest control services at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

The rat and surot infestation at the NAIA isn’t going to be cured by the magic wand called Charter change. Since April last year, airport services have been open to full foreign ownership, under the amended Public Service Act, along with railways and telecommunications.

We are cursed with policymakers whose idea of dealing with complex problems is to throw money – the people’s, not their own – at whatever is troubling every Juan and Juana.

Policymakers are busy navel-gazing; our political class has a dearth of visionaries. All views are limited to making a splash – not a genuine, lasting impact – within a year and a half. That period is midway through a three-year term for congressmen, all local executives and half of the senators, when political realignments start and potential rivals emerge for the next elections.

Their quick fix for increasing purchasing power is giving the poor ayuda, of course with the politicians posing for photos as they personally hand over the state-funded dole-outs. Yesterday, Senate Minority Leader Koko Pimentel said politicians should stop doing this. Good luck on that.

Food inflation? Sell state-subsidized goods at the Kadiwa outlets. Subsidize this, subsidize that. Where do you get the subsidy? Where else but from taxpayers. As we say in Filipino, we’re being sauteed in our own oil. 

Politicians’ sole long-term objective is how to perpetuate themselves and their clans in power. Senators have made no secret of their suspicion that this is the not-so-hidden agenda in the efforts of congressmen to stampede the nation into dancing the Cha-cha.

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Senators are hardly better. That legislated nationwide P100 wage hike being pushed by senators led by Migz Zubiri is lawmaking in aid of election, topped only by the proposal from some congressmen to make it P350. Since they’re not going to bear the burden of the higher business costs, why not push for P500, or P1,000? The sky’s the limit when it’s not your money.

Several businessmen have reminded lawmakers that the focus should be on job generation rather than legislating a wage hike that most of the 90 percent engaged in small enterprises in this country can’t afford to pay. But creating a more business-friendly environment that will create meaningful jobs is not sexy, doesn’t make for good sound bites or photo ops, and (groan) needs a lot of work.  

Sen. Cynthia Villar, who together with her son Senator Mark (plus Senators Imee Marcos and Lito Lapid) did not cast their votes on the P100 wage hike bill, said last week that what businessmen want is ease of doing business and less corruption. Coming from the matriarch of the country’s wealthiest family, that says a lot about the implementation of laws (two so far) and rules meant to promote ease of doing business.

 It’s ironic that while the two chambers of Congress are brawling over Charter change that supposedly aims to attract more foreign investments (in just three sectors), lawmakers are also pushing for a wage law that is sure to dampen foreign investor interest.

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 For every problem, we create a new executive department, with new offices and new positions that can be padded with beneficiaries of political patronage. It wouldn’t be too bad if the appointees have the capabilities for the job. Even local traffic enforcers, however, who get the job through connections in the local government and barangay, don’t get proper training in efficient traffic management.

Gerrymandering continues unabated, ostensibly to improve public services, but mainly to create more positions for members of political dynasties and their cronies, all of them requiring new office buildings, bodyguards, cars, representation expenses – you name it. Every new province requires a new capitol and a whole set of officials and personnel. Every new province creates at least one additional seat in the House of Representatives, which also raises the number of seats allotted for party-list representation.

The party list has become an expensive farce, a failed experiment in marginalized representation. If ever the Constitution is rewritten, the party list should be abolished.

 Every new administration, the current one included, promises rightsizing in government, and then quickly creates a new executive department. 

With honest-to-goodness rightsizing, we can be sure that the redundant government positions uncovered will be as voluminous as the redundant fees and requirements imposed on anyone doing business in this country. 

If bureaucratic fat could be truly, drastically trimmed, the billions saved in personnel expenses could build all the new roads needed in Greater Manila without the need to give the job to the private sector for toll collection that effectively goes on forever. Road tolls contribute to inflation and eat up a hefty chunk of low-income and middle-class salaries. Providing a decent road network for free to the public must be a basic responsibility of the government.

 Hefty savings in personnel and maintenance expenses can even give us airports that we can say are proudly Filipino-built, operated and maintained, without having to rely on the South Koreans to give us something approximating their world-class Incheon International.

Filipinos who feel trapped in the self-indulgence of those running the government opt for escape, and simply leave the country.

The joke is that even the rat caught on video at the NAIA was planning to stow away on a plane and join the millions of Pinoys who have sought greener pastures overseas.