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Philippines
Thursday, March 28, 2024

A higher good

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In seven days the waiting will be over for tens of thousands of applicants  jostling for about 18, 000 casual  jobs in government.

But none   will be heaving a huge sigh of relief more  than  El Niño victims, who  hope that the embargo on aid will be lifted  once the voting is over. 

This  climatic  anomaly    was worsened  by an aberration of the  political kind.  You see, among the prohibited acts during the campaign period  is the giving of aid to calamity victims.

It boggles the  mind on why  providing succor  to the down and out must be  booked as an election offense.

It is tantamount to penalizing acts of compassion for the flimsy reason  that  it could sway  voters’ choices at a  time when candidates are hustling for votes. Applied to El Niño, it is akin to stopping the flow of water but  allowing only hot air to blow out from those who step on  rally stages.

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It is like asking charity to go on forced leave because the brass bands of candidates is marching in.

Traditionally, campaign rules generally frown upon retail spending by any government agency for fear that even charitable acts can be leveraged into votes by those who perform them.

While it is true that many clever politicians in the past have invoked minor calamities in dipping into the public till, and later masqueraded vote-buying as altruism, the obvious ravages of El Niño argue that the prohibition must be sidelined.

Our election officials should have acted quickly on requests by local officials that they be permitted to use funds for El Niño relief. Better yet, issue a national directive lifting the  embargo  but providing guidance so as to prevent public funds from being used for electioneering.

If government must err, then it rather be on the side  of compassion.

Let elections be the collateral damage of a relaxed rule than victims be punished by a stringent regulation which make them victims twice over—first by a natural calamity, and then by a man-made rule.

The case of rules paralyzing aid was evident in the case of Cebu where  the  provincial government was ready to roll our assistance to farmers but was stopped by the existing election ban on such kind of activity.

Following established rules, the provincial government first placed the province under a state of calamity due to El Niño, a declaration which in ordinary times would have been enough to trigger the release of aid.

But without the explicit approval of the Commission on Elections, any form of assistance is a no-go. 

The green light  must come from Manila, and ignoring it constitutes an election offense, punishable with one to six years imprisonment and a lifetime ban  from holding public office, among others.

The Comelec has already prescribed an alternative—that aid be routed through  the Red Cross and the DSWD.  But the problem is DSWD’s organization stops at the  regional level, from thereon all social welfare offices are local government instrumentalities.

The idea of tapping the Red Cross is also good but it would be the first to lecture anyone who cares to listen that  it needs all hands on board  in  making sure aid reaches victims fast.

If this happened in Cebu, I wonder if the same restrictions were confronted by other LGUs as well, or for that   matter  by national  agencies  whose work, not only in the field of disaster relief, but in construction, to cite one example, was hindered  by the temporary freeze on these activities.

I think, after the dust of the current elections has settled,  we should  revisit  our election rules and examine how they affect government activities during the election season.

From where I stand, I see  no compelling reason as to why  bulldozers in road construction  projects should retreat when candidates’ motorcades begin crisscrossing the country.

When the infrastructure schedule is prohibited from overlapping with the election calendar, then that   is progress interrupted.

When aid is blocked for fear that it  could seduce  voters,  then humanitarian considerations  should trump  misplaced fears that no-strings-attached aid could corrupt voters.  

There is a clear disjoint  in policy when candidates are allowed to blare almost  P1-million per 30-second ads  on TV  non-stop while  government agencies are not allowed to give  five kilos of rice to drought victims.

When we modernize elections, it is not just installing voting machines. We also have to rid the rulebook of outdated regulations.

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