How government wastes our money

It is horrible how our government has been wasting our money through the years. But we seem to have become used to it that we no longer get scandalized or outraged enough to demand a stop to it. The Pharmally corruption is just one example.

In a hearing last week, senators found out that the government in 2009, during the tenure of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, bought a P511 million Manila air traffic system that cannot be safely used. It is a white elephant to this day.

The system was bought from a Czechoslovakian firm with no proven track record in providing dependable air traffic systems, a position paper of the Philippine Air Traffic Controllers Association (PATCA) said in 2011.

Former CAAP director general William Hotchkiss II told the senators that the Manila Area Control Center (MACC) had flaws that rendered it unusable. “It was a waste of money… It was unsafe to use,” he said during the Senate hearing last Thursday, Jan. 12, Rappler reported.

PATCA explained in its position paper that the system’s computers would reboot unexpectedly and data on an aircraft’s position and altitude were “not credible.” Because the problematic MACC was already there, COA used it as one of the reasons to temporarily disallow the modern CNS/ATM project from proceeding, causing serious and expensive delay.

COA again cited the MACC project in an audit report last year, calling it an “idle project” of DOTr. Phase 1 and 2 of the MACC are reportedly completed. But they could not explain how it can be made useful.

“Management has not submitted any update on the potential utilization of the substantially completed Manila Area Control Center Phase I and II so as to deter further loss to the government due to technological obsolescence,” COA said in its report.

Capt. Skee Tamayo, the present CAAP chief, said that the MACC system never went online “kasi ang daming defects, ang daming issues. It was not commissioned.”

Oh well, it may not have been commissioned, but maybe some people collected the commissions.

A letter sent to the President last Jan. 10, claims the MACC was conceptualized in 2009 after Typhoon Ondoy closed the Philippine airspace for around two hours. “A new MACC popped out of the blue and was not among the over-all long-term programs of the government,” the letter writer said.

“They copied some concepts of the Communication and Navigation Surveillance Air Traffic Management (CNS-ATM) facility, which was our country’s international commitment to align with a worldwide system that complies with agreements on civil aviation matters.”

The proponents, the letter said, were able to convince and mislead some of the higher ups, members of Congress, and even COA to believe that since the new MACC costs less, there is no need to pursue the implementation of CNS-ATM facility that will cost billions of pesos.

This claim, the letter said, is a “very big falsity.” The new MACC will not comply with our international civil aviation commitments.

The letter to Junior claimed that “during the actual test of the new MACC, there were two near miss incidents… the first involved Japan Airlines (Boeing 747) and PAL Boeing 777-300ER commercial aircrafts that were at the same altitude and nearly collided on Feb. 2, 2011.

There was supposedly a second incident involving three aircrafts flying on the same airways and direction. The normal separation per aircraft is 1,000 ft. But due to new technology, it can be reduced to 500 ft each.

“Upon review of this particular incident, it was revealed the separation of each aircraft were below 200 ft from each other when the alarm went off. Only the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) installed on those involved aircrafts prevented a collision.”

Taxpayers have already spent millions on the useless project: First phase P291 million and second phase P220 milllion. The third phase of P251 million was no longer implemented as the project attracted negative media reports.

After CAAP rejected the project, there was supposedly an attempt to transfer it to the Air Force to allow disbursing the remaining budget and collect another P50 million/year for maintenance cost. Never mind that the project would not function at all and could not be used.

COA cited another waste of money in Northern Foods Corporation, a government-owned food company in Ilocos Norte. It had been ordered abolished by Duterte for being useless. The taxpayers are still shouldering millions of pesos in continuing losses because the Duterte order was not carried out.

The company had long been in the red and bleeding money because of a failure to implement its liquidation plan. According to the COA in a Jan. 4 report, the liquidation plan has not been finalized because the Governance Commission for GOCCs has not convened a technical working group (TWG).

Another example of an expensive useless bureaucracy is the Philippine National Oil Company. Because of the present nature of oil industry operations, it no longer has a credible role that the PNOC EC cannot perform. Or maybe merge the two companies. The taxpayers can save on redundant board members and staff as well as office space.

A section in the Department of Finance can easily manage the real estate properties under PNOC with no additional bureaucracy needed. Unfortunately for taxpayers, the substantial allowances of the members of the PNOC Board are much sought after by political allies of whoever is in Malacanang.

In one of my email groups, waste in the creation of local government units was pointed out. The Philippines has 81 provinces while China has only 31 provinces and India has only 28 states, both have 1.4 billion people compared to the Philippines’ 115 million.

Congress has just passed a new law dividing Maguindanao into two provinces. This means that the former province of Cotabato has been divided into four provinces. The Philippines is about the size of Germany. That country has only 16 states.

After all those foreign trips of Junior and the massive rehabilitation of Bahay Pangarap in Malacanang where he and his family are supposed to live, Junior must make an effort to show taxpayers he respects their hard-earned tax money.

I know. That’s asking for the moon.

Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco.