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AS
expected, militant groups are criticizing the P1,500
fertilizer subsidy promised by Malacañang, and, noting
the administration’s track record in earlier similar
scams—er, schemes—expressed serious doubt the dole would
reach the intended beneficiaries. After all, in an
ironic twist, the new subsidy was announced on the day
the news broke that a US court had rejected the plea for
asylum of the man most associated with the P728-million
fertilizer scam just before the 2004 elections, former
Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Jocjoc” Bolante.
Skeptical reactions are not surprising from the likes of
the national peasant federation Kilusang Magbubukid ng
Pilipinas (KMP), the fisherfolk alliance Pambansang
Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya)
or the Amihan-National Federation of Peasant Women.
Yet,
ideologies aside, the three groups have a point, and who
can blame them? What should give the public confidence
that, this time around, a fertilizer subsidy to help
farmers buy fertilizer would really go to them and yield
the intended result, i.e., boost rice production as
envisioned in the P43.5-billion program unveiled by the
President last month, when the rice crisis was at its
peak?
According to Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, the
Department of Agriculture (DA) will take charge of the
fertilizer-subsidy program and coupons will be
distributed to farmers to claim the P1,500 fertilizer
fund. Of this amount, P 1,000 will come from the DA, and
the P500 from local government units.
What is
the apprehension of the three groups? That, besides
throwing in more good money (fertilizer subsidy part 2)
after bad (fertilizer scam part 1), the administration
is barely scraping the surface of the whole problem of
food security, and is instead wasting even more scarce
resources on tokenisms and placebos that cannot ensure
long-term solutions to hunger and inflation.
For one,
they cited a reluctance to extradite Mr. Bolante, so he
can have his day in court in connection with the
fertilizer scam. On a second point, the release of
billions in government funds for a purpose that is, at
best, vague, and the details of which are too sketchy,
could be a perfect means for covering up the release of
billions of taxpayers’ money in preparation for the 2010
national elections.
Earlier,
the government had gotten ample warning from
multilateral agencies and institutions against throwing
its fiscal program completely off-track with haphazard
populist measures that give people fleeting relief—if
they get the doles at all—but do not ensure sustainable
solutions, while creating new fiscal megaheadaches.
Now,
this isn’t a brief for blindly following foreign
dictates, but there is every reason for heeding sound
advice—at least up to the point that discourages the use
of scarce resources to throw money at hastily conceived
solutions.
It is
hard to imagine that the government, with all its
experts, does not know the problems of farmers,
particularly in fertilizer. How, then, one must ask, can
they believe that a one-time dole of P1,500 would have
any real impact and help attain rice self-sufficiency?
Hence,
the militants like Pamalakaya cannot help but theorize
that the P43.5 billion agricultural fund is more
intended for the 2010 presidential, senatorial and local
elections.
“Malacañang merely brokered the news to Palace-ally
politicians that there is enough money for them in the
2010 elections.”
The
finance department said it would source the P43.5
billion from the windfall tax revenues the government
collects from high petroleum prices, where it would get
at least P18.6 billion in taxpayers’ money. Other
sources will come from foreign aid and loans—in other
words, burdens of taxpayers for whom the politicians
were supposedly bleeding for in the first place.
Surreal.
Thanks, but . . .
WHILE at
this exercise, it’s best to clarify the context of that
presidential directive to the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB)
on Wednesday to cut toll rates in the North Luzon
Expressway starting June 30.
To be
fair, it is a good order that could impact not just on
the bottom line of the rich, whose luxury cars and SUVs
routinely go north for weekend vacations, but also, more
important, reduce the cost of commerce between Metro
Manila and Central and North Luzon.
The
President and Palace handlers made it look like she was
ordering the TRB to order the operator, Manila North
Luzon Tollways Corp. (MNTC), to part with its windfall
profits—a result of the foreign-exchange gains,
considering the MNTC loans were dollar-denominated and
the dollar had weakened considerably since the operator
first made its assumptions.
As it
turns out, as explained quite simply by MNTC president
Jose de Jesus, the MNTC had submitted to the regulatory
board since five months ago a proposal for a new formula
for setting its rate, taking into account precisely the
foreign-exchange gains.
The
Malacañang order, then, would simply have the effect of
prodding the TRB to move on the MNTC proposal.
What is
the point in bringing this up? Simply for transparency
and honesty. If the administration, indeed, wants to
help cushion the impact of soaring fuel and food prices
on ordinary folk, then the least it can do is order its
army of experts to look for genuine ways of mitigating
their hardship, not resort to shallow measures that
mislead. |
