Time to call ‘Housekeeping’

Given how he and his administration scored in the latest survey, plus a couple of love letters from concerned groups regarding impeachments and budget cuts on the military, now would be the right time for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to do the necessary “housekeeping” among his non-performing appointees or NPAs in government.

The President should also revisit his plans of “right sizing” the government. The Marcos Jr. administration is well on its way towards sinking the Philippines back in the quicksand called foreign debt faster than his father did in two administrations and 17 years of martial law.

PBBM and his PR crew may be tempted to ignore the survey results, but he ought to know that the rumblings go far deeper than percentile scores in front page news stories. There are several departments and many agencies that are beyond non-performing, some are accused of corruption, red tape or non-delivery of services.

PBBM could enlist the services of the UP or DAP to conduct the review or study. At the very least, start 2025 with a customer satisfaction survey of every department and each of its agencies to determine if people even know who is in-charge, if people are satisfied or what their complaints are.

If the President wants to cut flesh, he can invite people from the academe and the media to form a separate focus group that can conduct or submit a more informed evaluation, especially of those in the leadership and senior administrative level. An independent private sector review could fairly gauge “job descriptions” versus outputs and accomplishments.

Quite frankly, even ordinary citizens who regularly listen to the news and have some amount of logic could easily tell the President those who pass or fail. Take, for instance, the recent reports of traffic going to Bicol province backing up and standing still all day or overnight.

That already tells PBBM that the DPWH and regional DILG are not on the ball and have not been attending to their main responsibility. Most vehicle owners and drivers can tell you that they are not getting their money’s worth from the Road Users Tax that they pay, considering how the roads all over Metro Manila are sub-standard, improperly paved and poorly kept clean, much less painted with proper lane dividers.

They can also tell PBBM what the point of vehicle testing centers is, if LGUs do not recognize what the LTO recognizes and conducts their own field tests that violate standard testing process. If LTO, LTFRB and DPWH cannot stop overloading and illegal vehicle body conversions, why give them funding for those?

The news that has been circulating that the Marcos Jr. administration has over P1 trillion of unspent money in the budget would tell the President that some people either asked too much, are withholding funds and may be earning from interest from bank deposits, or simply don’t know how to do their job or are afraid to do their job.

That’s one trillion reasons for PBBM to have a word with the Department of Budget and Management because there is a serious cost of money, inflation and unserved programs that the people are being deprived of.

In the news, people hear or read about hundreds of houses going up in flames, mostly of informal settlers who have to save, collect or scavenge materials for their DIY homes. PBBM and his housing czar talked proudly of building six million houses or homes in his six-year presidency. There are billboards heralding the mythical six million homes but nothing in the news. So three years after, the Pabahay ng Pangulo ay Magulo at Malabo, but his housing czar will never admit it.

While the PDEA and the PNP insist that the drug problem is under control, citizens read about multi-million-peso drug busts conducted by the PDEA-PNP. We who live in the different barangays, those who drive Grab cars or motorcycle taxis and women who go home at night are reminded to be careful because of snatchers, “riding in tandem” shooters and neighborhood druggies who went into hiding during the time of president Duterte are now back in the streets.

During my recent visit to Cebu City and Mactan, local sources repeatedly talked about petty crimes returning, while cops have become hesitant to collar suspects because you never know whose “pet criminal” you catch.

Last week, one employer and one employee from two different organizations shared how concerned or affected they were based on actual experience and feedback regarding arbiters at the National Labor Relations Commission whose notoriety for “fixing” judgments and taking a cut in the compensation. This has been an ongoing allegation for many years.

Of course, let’s not forget the Department of Health and some of its agencies such as the PhilHealth and the FDA. In one case, management is in default mode and in the other, the system itself is so slow that under another administration, the ARTA would have gone after them.

Oh, is the ARTA still around?

Good luck, Mr. President!

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