DEMAND AND SUPPLY
By Boo Chanco
The Philippine Star
By Boo Chanco
The Philippine Star
People are tired waiting. Many are tired of giving him any more time to get to know his job. Indeed, P-Noy is over the halfway mark in his term and if he still doesn’t know what to do and needs more time to think, it is probably too late for him and the country anyway.
It is now or never. This goes for his much vaunted Daang Matuwid or anti-corruption drive as well as for essential infrastructure projects. A sense of urgency has been injected into the anti-corruption campaign in recent weeks because of the pork barrel scandal.
I am looking at a few things as good indicators of whether P-Noy is just all talk and has a serious problem of execution. Maybe I have been hammering at DOTC for its fear of execution when that is P-Noy’s problem as well.
Let us take case number one – Customs. In the last SONA, P-Noy let out a strong tirade against corruption at Customs. He used fairly spicy language in Tagalog to express his disgust with the folks at Customs. The English language cannot capture the vehemence of P-Noy’s condemnation and I thought that was good.
My mistake was to expect action. SONA was about two months ago and nothing… absolutely nothing has happened since. It is such that I can imagine the “kapal muks” at Customs, as the President called them, are now laughing at the inutility of Malacañang.
All that huffing and puffing by the President is just that… a lot of huffing and puffing… essentially hot air. I am told that Ruffy Biazon has submitted his reform suggestions to DOF and Malacanang and is just waiting like the rest of us for a reaction. We are all waiting for Godot, it seems.
My question is simply this: If P-Noy was not inclined to do anything drastic that would clearly show his determination to clean up Customs, why the strong language in his SONA? It reduces his credibility in the long term. He may have gotten some applause that afternoon but the long waiting for something good to happen is straining the patience of even P-Noy’s staunchest supporters who are not beholden to him.
There are now increasingly credible rumors that P-Noy cannot do anything significant at Customs because it goes against the interest of some of P-Noy’s own close-in officials. There is now a part two to that rumor: are those Malacañang officials working on their own (namamasada) without the knowledge of P-Noy, or are they doing his dirty job?
Big lesson here is that an honest and sincere President cannot run government by press release or strongly worded speeches. Good intentions are nice but action must match words in short order. Delays give rise to ugly talk that gains credibility over time.
Still on the SONA… recall that in his very first SONA, P-Noy also delivered in pretty colorful language the serious anomaly behind the handling by Ate Glue of the MRT 3 bonds. Sen Serge Osmeña investigated the thing and confirmed not just the problem cited by P-Noy but also some related anomaly.
Sen. Osmeña uncovered what looks like insider trading that allowed a company close to the Arroyo husband and wife to buy the MRT bonds in the open market and sell to DBP/Land Bank at a mark-up. The GFIs could have done it themselves without going through any crony intermediary for greater gain for government. When I asked Gary Teves about this, he could not give me a good answer.
How come P-Noy is unable or unwilling to go after those responsible for the deal and file proper charges in court? Indeed, for that matter, how come it is still all talk about P-Noy’s order to DOTC to buy those bonds from the GFIs and de-privatize MRT 3 so that the rehabilitation program can begin?
And speaking of DOTC, how come the principal officer of a DOTC unit linked to a scandal revealed by the Czech Ambassador was quietly allowed to go back to work after being suspended while investigation is going on? Was the investigation concluded and the guy was exonerated? This is important because the reputation of P-Noy’s sister is also on the line here.
Still on P-Noy and his SONA bombasts, recall how P-Noy waxed poetic over how the NLEX-SLEX connector road project will relieve traffic congestion on EDSA. Thus, P-Noy declared, he approved not just one but two connector road projects.
Okay, Mr. President… we are sold on it too. How come nothing has been heard about it after your SONA? As far as I know, both projects are still mired in the approval process in your bureaucracy. Do your cabinet members even listen to your speeches?
My sources at the Palace tell me that the President himself is getting impatient over the slow pace of projects. But is he the President or is he not? I would think that if the President shows impatience, his cabinet members will quake in their shoes, pee in their pants and hurry back to their offices and make their subordinates quake and pee as well to get things moving.
Now it seems, P-Noy’s cabinet members just patronize him in his presence and then ignore him behind his back. Otherwise, how come agencies like the DOTC seem happy going through motions of activities… have six-hour meetings… and produce nothing?
It is now fair to ask, Can P-Noy deliver? Or is P-Noy just all talk?
The only thing significant P-Noy has to show for his more than three years in office is the resignation of former Ombudsman Gutierrez and the impeachment of former Chief Justice Corona. But that can be given a political color even if those developments are essential in a serious anti-corruption fight.
The difference between now and the first three years is a more attuned, enraged and less forgiving citizenry at present. With the pork scam, P-Noy will now be hounded day and night by angry citizens who want to make sure their tax money is well spent.
We need to see some blood… we need to see some corrupt officials hang. DOJ cannot investigate this pork scam forever. Cases must be filed soon. The public has a good sense of how much the public trust has been betrayed and those responsible must pay for their crimes.
Is P-Noy the man to see corruption finally punished? Or does P-Noy think having the best intentions in Daang Matuwid is the same as seeing it actually happen?
Kung hindi ngayon, kailan? Kung hindi si P-Noy, sino? Is this clear enough?
PGH
I brought up to Alex Padilla, PhilHealth president, the problem of indigents seeking medical services at PGH. I asked Alex to read the blog of Dr. Ronnie Enriquez Baticulon, a PGH neurosurgical resident. The doctor talked about their heartbreaking experiences in dealing with indigent patients who badly need medical care.
I asked Alex if there is anything PhilHealth can do inasmuch we are talking of poor people seeking health care which his agency has a mandate to provide.
Here is the response of Alex:
UP PGH is part of the university system and not DoH. I think however we can make the point of care enrollment available to them. In this manner, they can enroll the poor and PHIC pays for the services which they previously paid from their charity subsidy or had to await funding from PCSO and the like.
This is additional funding for them, a form of extra resources. Part of our reimbursement is also the professional fee where by guidelines should be divided among the public health workers and thus become even an additional compensation source for them.
We have just finished pilot testing and will be rolling it out to all public facilities including PGH. If they desire to be part of the program, we need their application.
Thanks again, Boo.
Bumper sticker
Here is a good bumper sticker:
Don’t steal. Congressmen and senators hate competition.
Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is bchanco@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco
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