Slowly, we have come to endure the system and the leaders, seemingly inured to how the corruption and inefficiency has pauperized the economy, save for the few who profit from it
Benjamin Magalong, a former PNP officer elected mayor of the summer capital twice over, has just turned the heat on Congress.
While other soldiers and retirees have chided the finance secretary for wanting to “reform” a fiscal problem called the MUP, and many more contemplate early retirement from the active service, whether as soldier or policeman and “others,” Magalong has brought the battleground where it ought to be—the House and Senate of Pork.
Ben Diokno was DBM secretary and BSP governor during the previous government which decided to double the salaries of uniformed personnel whose lives were laid on the line to defend and preserve the republican democracy which is actually feudal in practice.
Now, as the finance secretary, in charge of raising the ways and means to sustain the government’s operations, and amid a legacy debt of P12.3 billion now almost P14 billion after a year, he warns of “fiscal collapse” unless the pension system for active and retired personnel of the military, police, fire protection, our jail system, the coast guard and even the mapping agency called NAMRIA, is appropriately reformed.
Diokno”s reform plan specifically wants to remove the automatic indexation of pension to the salary of active personnel, limit the receipt of pensions only when the pensioner reaches 57 years and not after 20 years as provided by the current law.
Furthermore, mandatory contributions similar to those that civilian government employees contribute to the GSIS shall be henceforth required.
Because the current MUP is non-contributory, the national government, through the annual appropriations act (GAA), funds it fully.
And our economic managers find the burden too huge, and it’s sustainability too difficult.
Since Diokno called for reforming the current MUP, both houses of Congress have been holding hearings on the matter and, to date, no consensus has been reached between our legislators and the executive, for that matter, the active and retired recipients.
In oblique manner, former senator Panfilo Lacson months ago drew a similarity between Diokno’s multi-million salary in the BSP as compared to what a retired general receives as monthly pension.
Others have pointed at the gross disparity between civilian employees and those of the military: one which contributes monthly deductions to gross pay but receives far less than one who contributes nothing at all.
Similarly, a retired justice, or a retired official of the constitutional commissions receives even more, although some have served as such only for a few years through mostly political patronage.
Comes now the mayor of Baguio City who trounced political hegemons in the summer capital after leaving the police force with unsullied reputation and brilliant career, who waded into the debate, unfortunately lost in the welter of copy-cat confusion spawned by the tourism department’s LOVE the Philippines.
Magalong says active and retired military personnel would be willing to contribute their share to avoid Diokno’s “fiscal collapse,” provided “lawmakers do their share by shunning corrupt practices like getting kickbacks from government projects.”
Touche!
Pork barrel, which the Supreme Court declared as “unconstitutional” after the massive scandal where practically every lawmaker colluded with Napoles in the scam of the century with ghost projects exposed a decade back, still exists, Magalong charged.
Indeed, sanitized from congressional “earmarks” to “insertions,” thence “identification” and now “built-in” exists in our budget, and bigger, more humongous than ever before.
Pork barrel funds are the raison d’etre of most congressmen, whether district representative or party-listed.
And the executive, realizing that, without the pork, its desired legislation will not see the light of day, has played along, with legislators now slicing their “meat” from DPWH, DA, and other agencies budget.
In the current HoR, a cabal of contractors turned congressmen, mostly from the party-list, has become the clearing house for the allocation of pork, and with so many neophytes, mostly second or third generation dynasty members, wonder whether there is “tong-pats” in who gets what better than the rest.
In the Senate, after Ping Lacson and the late Joker Arroyo, everyone takes a slab of “juicy” meat from the GAA, which starts when the President’s budget is seen by its “august” members.
“I had a chance to talk to several contractors. I asked them assuming that I will take cuts from infrastructure projects, how much will it be? And they said about 10 percent to 15 percent or 20 percent to 25 percent, depending on the decision of the mayors or the lawmakers,” Magalong said.
Tell you what, Mayor Benjie: some lawmakers demand as much as 40 percent, sobrang takaw.
The result, as everyone knows, is sub-standard projects, or the favorite “flood control” systems that are out-flooded each time the rains pour.
“The way they dispose of it is institutional. Some congressmen have several projects and roads but the bidding was rigged. You can check the profile of some legislators and LGU executives—many of them are contractors and suppliers. They get a percentage and they also get the projects as contractors,” he pointed out.
En punto, Senor alcalde!
Pero damay-damay naman, Magalong suggests.
“We, in the uniform service, are willing to give up a small amount of our pension just to help the national government, just to address this huge deficit, just to address this big national debt. Let’s wait to see what our brave legislators have to say,” Magalong said in his speech during a virtual flag raising ceremony on July 3 at Camp Crame.
And added: “It is about time that legislators should also give a big contribution to address national government issues, especially on our financial debts.”
So bad is the stand-off that a sizeable part of our active military and police personnel are now planning to retire early, so as to get their pensions and entitlements before the MUP is reformed, aware that legislation cannot be retro-active in effect.
But wait!
Will our legislators ever “reform”? Mend their ways and atone for the “happy days” just as kings of yore wore sackcloth?
Will the executive find the courage to stand up for the people and finally abhor the abominable pork barrel insertions, looking at Congress eye to eye and fight mano a mano for the public interest against greed and entitlement?
Not on your life. Not now, and perhaps not ever, given the political system we have, given the depravity of our moral standards as a society.
Which reminds me of what once upon a time happened, not in EDSA, but in Portugal.
For far too long after the monarchy was dethroned, Portugal and its colonies were under the grip of an authoritarian regime, the Estado Novo, headed by Antonio de Salazar, who after his death in 1968, was replaced by Marcelo Caetano, in a long reign that lasted more than 40 years.
But on April 25, 1974, the military revolted, surrounding the National Assembly, and the people rallied behind them, placing flowers in the muzzle of their guns, thus the event is immortalized as the “Carnation Revolution.”
What followed were two years of a military junta which later gave way to elections that established a constitutional government led by Mario Soares and the Portuguese Socialist Party.
Despite early transitional bumps, Portugal, now relieved of its former colonies most of which have become economic powerhouses in their continents, has become one of the most stable polities and economies in Europe.
Similar to the Philippines, Portugal’s authoritarian Estado Novo was an economy under the control of oligarchs disguised as corporations, which led to unequal wealth distribution and distorted economic policies.
These families kept the dictator Salazar in power from pre-war to post-war, just as Generalissimo Franco controlled Spain from civil war till 1975.
Now fast forward to our country, which ought-to-be National Artist Lea Salonga decries in heart-felt terms, “Pilipinas, kay hirap mong mahalin,” and a mis-placed LOVE wants to entice.
We had several opportunities in the past for meaningful change.
But always, the leaders we choose, who the electorate thought were the “best,” have become the “least among us.”
And slowly, we have come to endure the system and the leaders, seemingly inured to how the corruption and inefficiency has pauperized the economy, save for the few who profit from it.
Will we ever see real change in our lifetime?
Sir Benjie, what say you?