EDITORIAL - Stop redrawing boundaries

Before things get out of hand, the government should put a stop to a job-generation scheme at taxpayer expense. This is the creation of new government offices, by carving out new regions, provinces, congressional districts and now even barangays. This opens more positions to accommodate the relatives and beneficiaries of patronage of incumbent politicians. Turf wars are also being resolved by redrawing boundaries.

Following the creation of the Negros Island Region last June through legislation, there are proposals to create more new regions. Across the country, new barangays are being created through plebiscites. Last Saturday in the town of Barobo in Surigao del Sur, with 2,547 registered voters, 55.71 percent or over 1,200 people decided in a plebiscite to create a new barangay.

Each new government unit requires new office buildings, equipment and staff ranging from a few dozen to over a thousand. Every new congressional district not only adds to the number of regular lawmakers but also to the number of seats for party-list members in the House of Representatives. Every new province requires a new capitol building, with all the concomitant expenses charged to taxpayers.

Has the expansion of government led to expanded efficiency in the delivery of services? No one outside government will think this is the case. From the most basic services delivered by both the national and local governments – health, education and waste management – to the ease of doing business and other transactions to stimulate economic activity, public services are found wanting. Services are seen to be inefficient, deteriorating, politicized and being delivered unequally, with preferential treatment given to those with the right connections.

The regular government payroll is enormous enough. The funding requirement for the retirement pensions of thousands of military and other uniformed personnel as well as members of the judiciary is so massive it drew a warning about future fiscal collapse from former finance secretary Benjamin Diokno.

President Marcos, like several of his predecessors, promised at the start of his term that there would be rightsizing in the bureaucracy. Surely creating new government offices is not his idea of rightsizing and job generation. He should work with his congressional allies and local governments to apply the brakes on the needless and costly redrawing of boundaries.