Filipinos have been reduced to begging in the streets.
Everywhere in the capital, beggars have sprouted like mushrooms, risking their lives and limbs as they squeezed between motor vehicles stuck in traffic and busy street corners.
Some were carrying infants and small children, who appeared to be drugged and dazed. Most of the time, these children are asleep.
What is the government doing to help these people? They appeared around the holiday season, apparently taking advantage of the Christmas spirit of giving.
Some would think a criminal syndicate was behind the sudden proliferation of beggars on the street.
However, a larger segment of society is not far from begging. People lined up outside politicians’ homes, waiting for baskets of goodies and a few hundred cash.
On Christmas Day, thousands trooped to former president Rodrigo Duterte’s ancestral home for the family’s traditional gift-giving.
Some waited from the early morning to receive a few kilos of rice, canned goods, and other basic commodities, gift checks, and cash.
While the people humiliated themselves, the Dutertes shared lavish meals with “lechon” on the table.
Thirty years in power prove that the Dutertes never made a difference in the lives of their constituents.
They remained poor and dependent while the Dutertes continued to enrich themselves.
The spectacle is not unique to Davao City. It is replicated in other areas. The people are becoming dependent on politicians’ generosity.
Politicians are happy to throw the scraps of food to the poor people who are forever indebted to vote for them again and again every election.
In Metro Manila, affluent local governments distribute “Christmas baskets” to constituents regardless of social and economic status.
Barangay officials delivered the Christmas baskets to individual homes, including high-rise condominiums and gated villages.
Of course, the wealthy constituents do not need these Christmas baskets but it has become a tradition since the coronavirus disease (COVID) pandemic in 2020.
This, however, institutionalized the state’s mendicancy policy. Cash and other forms of government assistance caused the national debt to balloon to levels that threaten fiscal policy.
Lawmakers have taken advantage of the executive’s practice, helping themselves to fatten the pork barrel and cutting the budget for education, health, agriculture, social services, and national defense.
They introduced all sorts of assistance programs to make the electorate dependent on them and ensure victory in next May’s midterm elections.
Lawmakers — senators and congress members — have no business distributing cash assistance to the people.
Their only job is to legislate and see to it the budget is spent effectively through their oversight functions.
The lawmakers probably found a model from Sen. Bong Go’s “Malasakit Center.” It had made him a popular lawmaker.
What he did in the “Malasakit Center” was a brilliant idea — centralizing medical assistance to indigent patients.
Before the “Malasakit Center” was put up, poor patients lined up at the Department of Social Work and Development (DSWD), the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) to ask for assistance.
Bong Go took all the funds from these agencies and placed them at the “Malasakit Center.”
Local government executives and lawmakers continued to grant “guarantee letters” to pay for hospital bills, but some medical centers do not honor these “guarantee letters” because they have a hard time collecting from officials and lawmakers.
These officials, lawmakers, and various government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) should remit funds and guarantee letters to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (Philhealth), increasing the coverage for each case and reducing out-of-pocket expenses.
Roughly, Philhealth only covers 30 percent of hospitalizations.
For health and medical expenses, the poor should be given 100 percent coverage.
Outside of health and medical needs, the poor must be provided with jobs and not be made dependent on cash and food assistance.
The government is teaching the poor to be dependent and lazy. There must be corresponding community service for the cash and food assistance.
Stop making the people beg. Give them decent jobs.
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