EDITORIAL — Preying on the poorest

At all levels of government, it seems, public officials are busy robbing the people blind.

In Iloilo City, 12 barangay officials and two city government employees face criminal and administrative charges for forcing ayuda recipients to give up nearly their entire cash aid, on pain of being delisted as beneficiaries.

Last Thursday, the Department of Social Welfare and Development filed before the office of the Ombudsman charges of graft, violation of the code of conduct of public employees, grave misconduct and abuse of authority against the 14 for seizing the cash aid of beneficiaries of the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations or AICS program.

DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian, who led the filing of the complaints, said out of P10,000 in cash aid, recipients were forced by the barangay officials to fork over from P8,000 to P9,000, otherwise they would be removed from the list of people eligible for AICS.

The cases cover AICS cash payouts amounting to P21.6 million in 16 Iloilo City barangays on Nov. 7, 11 and 12, during which there were 2,160 beneficiaries. The complaints had prompted the suspension of AICS payouts for the rest of the year.

Facing charges are barangay officials Gina Elauria, Jingjing Pineda, Amadeo Sultan, Visamin Cañal, Remedios Bedia, barangay captain and councilors Huntado and Gonzales, Rizaline Delmo, Victoria Ruel, an unidentified village treasurer and a kagawad of Barangay Simon Ledesma along with city hall personnel Jobert Lim and Janicol Dizon.

AICS is meant to help poor people in need of cash in situations such as health emergencies and burials. That barangay officials prey on the neediest people is an atrocity in grassroots governance.

DSWD personnel are the ones who draw up the list of beneficiaries for ayuda programs and the conditional cash transfer, the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, and barangay personnel are not supposed to have a role in this. But there have been similar complaints against barangay officials even in the 4Ps.

This abominable practice, which reportedly started at the height of the COVID lockdowns when many impoverished households became fully dependent on state assistance, is believed to have become widespread and even the norm in ayuda payouts.

Yesterday, the DSWD reported uncovering more AICS payout abuses, with several local officials in Negros facing complaints from victims.

This scandal is a good argument for placing all tax-funded aid programs under an expanded version of the 4Ps, wherein cash dole-outs are withdrawn from ATMs.

And to think that barangay officials’ political patrons just recently even rewarded the incumbents with yet another one-year extension of their stay in office, plus an additional year in their original three-year term. The crooks among barangay officials have every reason to believe that they must be doing something right.