What? Give tax money to the poor?

This administration of Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has become, at best, a pretentious regime. It pretends to be concerned with the plight of the less privileged sector of our society. Its pronouncements are made to approximate the ideals of a welfare state. How else can we call the announcement of Malacañang that there is a multi billion-peso allocation ready to be distributed to the poorest of the poor? Pretending that it is prepared as a buffer to the unprecedented economic difficulties, the office of the country’s chief executive wants us to believe that this fund is designed to assist the needy among us. Baloney!

Welfare state, we really are not. This government refuses to recognize that the concept of a welfare state does not mean doling out cold cash (granting it can be really done) to those who have no visible means of livelihood. Giving fish being not the way is as biblical as anyone can get. Teaching how to fish is it. To be politically sure, a welfare state puts premium on the assurance of decent living conditions for the entire population. Repeat, “decent living conditions for the entire population.”  This was how the late Chief Justice Enrique Fernando, characterized it. He added that “in more prosaic terms, welfare state implies that state power is utilized to modify the free play of economic and social forces so that the basic necessities of life of every one are not neglected”.

Now, let me go back to the announced multi billion pesos this government plans to funnel allegedly to the poor. The matter of whether this fund can reach the hands of the poor is of most important consideration. This administration can hardly be trusted in the way it handles large sums of money intended for such a noble project as a pro-poor program. For instance, more than seven hundred million pesos were lost to the project reportedly authored by one Joc-joc Bolante, allegedly a friend of the first gentleman. Oh, if the scheme were only read on paper, it was brilliant. We were told that the money was supposedly allocated to purchase fertilizers for distribution to farmers. We could not go wrong with the plan except that, as  reported later, millions were siphoned to favored officials seeking re-election under the banner of the president days before the 2004 polls. Pres. Arroyo could have addressed the issue emphatically and removed the suspicion that she used the money to advance her own re-election. But, she miserably failed what with the widespread rumor that Mr. Bolante flew from the coop and beyond the armors of our laws, with the assistance of the powers-that-be.

For another, there was the reported diversion of the the road users tax. It was also a multi-billion caper. While the law would have the fund, which was paid by users of the road like car owners, available for specific purposes, it was, by some stroke of the pen of authorities, allegedly diverted to another portfolio to be spent to pay street cleaners, a matter clearly outside the scope of its legal application. Again, the president could have the manifest malversation investigated and its authors prosecuted, but, she ominously fell into a profound amnesia.

Then, there was this fairly recent report of the Commision On Audit, revealing to us that billions of pesos, ostensibly intended to support the swine industry, were lost. Others went to the extent of saying that favored candidates of the administration in the last 2007 elections, used the largesse to fund their campaign. I wondered why government is dragging its feet here. There is no distinct and visible move to have this pillage seriously looked into leading us to think that the hesitance of investigators must have the imprimatur of high officials.

To me,  the president pretends to be on the side of the people. The policy behind this new available multi billion-peso fund is philosophically skewed. For the government to give the money paid by taxpayers to the poor is absurd. It achieves no purpose than institutionalizing political patronage. By no means does it advance the welfare of the state to promote indolence. Still, the president has the chance to rectify the error. She can instead use the money to energize the environment and generate job opportunities. One urgent steps is to develop and capitalize a program designed to minimize the short fall in rice production.

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