“Raffy Tulfo zeroes in on instances where ordinary folks are short-changed by government functionaries through the trio of malfeasance, misfeasance and non-feasance”
The Senate hearings on “economic provisions” of the present Constitution, chaired temporarily by Senator Sonny Angara, is bringing some sense into the debate, even as its persistent champions from the HoR continue to nag their counterparts in the “smaller house” to speed up the process, in slavish deference to the “president’s wish.”
One of a few senators who always talks sense, Chiz Escudero has wondered why the invited resource persons to Angara’s hearings only express “opinions” instead of basing their arguments for economic amendments on solid research and real data.
Ed Francisco, president of BdO Capital, for one, said that foreign investors were not turned off by ownership limits but by the red tape and continuing corruption in our bureaucracy.
Francisco cited the renewable energy industry where it currently takes 167 signatures for a project to get approved. He complained the entire process of securing approval takes as long as five years.
I recall when we were crafting a 10-point action platform for presidential candidate Isko Moreno in the last campaign, resource persons we invited said as much, an example of process endurance that few investors would risk.
Through my years in public service, I have always wondered why government regulations and bureaucratic implementation seems to be premised on how to make things difficult for the public, instead of making it easier for them to conduct business.
Government auditing rules, for instance, make it so difficult to be service-effective and cost-efficient, while every agency wants to enhance their turf by making rules and regulations so tedious and often intended to make the public come across.
LGUs, with their clout enhanced by the Local Government Code that gave them their IRAs and now the Mandanas ruling always assert their “power” down to the barangay level.
Then again, the areas identified by SP Migs Zubiri namely media, advertising and education, are not even capital-intensive nor necessary.
Those who can afford Oxford or Harvard will go to London and Boston, or even nearby Singapore, rather than enroll here.
Our creative advertising people need not be eclipsed by foreigners; they can always go into joint ventures to satisfy multinational clients.
Removing the economic restrictions in the present charter is not that urgent. It will not bring FDIs swarming into our economy as they do in Vietnam and Indonesia.
Instead, we just need to legislate less restrictions, make IRRs simpler and investor-friendly, get LGUs to interfere less, and cut corruption, from the lowest government units up to the top, including the judiciary.
The real problem is: masyadong maraming pakialamero sa gobyerno.
And if we are to revise the “out-dated” Charter, we had better start with making our politics saner, simpler and more cost-effective.
The less elected officials, the better, and the more front-line public servants, whether in health, education or law and order, and practically every facet of daily life, the more appreciated government will be by our people.
With the discredited PI now beyond repair, it is best for our legislators and the President himself, to call for a Constitutional Convention where the entire fundamental law can be properly debated and studied before a new draft is submitted to the people in plebiscite.
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Making sense as well is neophyte Raffy Tulfo’s eagle-eyed expose’s on corruption and bureaucratic incompetence.
Not for Tulfo are the more high-fallutin’ arguments pro and against the cha-cha.
Instead, he zeroes in on instances where ordinary folks are short-changed by government functionaries through the trio of malfeasance, misfeasance and non-feasance.
He exposed the strange conduct of PCSO’s lotto, the ticket to plenty that many of the masa pin their hopes into.
He even went into questioning the multi-billion budget of the Office of the Presidential Adviser for Peace, Reconciliation and Unity, in getting rebels to surrender and reconcile with government by paying them a hundred thousand each without the corresponding number of firearms surrendered.
Doing the math, Tulfo asked why 26,112 decommissioned MILF combatants surrendered only 4,625 weapons to government, but got paid nonetheless, and while not accusing its head of corruption, he scored against both probable corruption and incompetence in the ranks.
This highly popular neophyte is being true to his avowed purpose for seeking public office, which is to be the “boses ng bayan,” articulating the common man’s complaints about an uber-expensive government with abusive and useless officials.