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DESPITE
the billion-peso proceeds of the value-added tax (VAT)
collected by the national government, the government
should stop giving doles and instead pool the funds to
create long-term, well-targeted programs for the poor.
Former
National Economic and Development Authority (Neda)
director general Cielito Habito and Philippine Rural
Reconstruction Movement (PRRM) president Conrado Navarro
both agreed that temporary doles will not ease the
suffering of the poor and will only make them even more
dependent on the government.
Habito
also said that in creating programs for the poor, the
projects must be more focused and well-targeted to give
the poor relief for a longer period of time.
He cited
a study by the semigovernment Philippine Institute for
Development Studies (PIDS) showing that State projects
experience a 66-percent leakage—meaning, two-thirds of
projects do not reach the poor.
Further,
Habito said projects also have an 80 percent
undercoverage rate. “Malaking homework ang
kailangan nating gawin [A lot needs to be done],”
Habito said at the sidelines of the launch of the
Citizen’s Movement for Good Governance (CMGG) on
Thursday.
He said
the government must direct its VAT proceeds to providing
farm credit and agricultural subsidies to farmers. This
would not only ease the food crisis but also increase
the number of employed Filipinos.
He also
noted a need to improve tax administration since the
government has already admitted that around P243 billion
is lost to tax evasion alone.
The
former Neda chief also said that even if some of the
long-term projects exceed the VAT and tax collections,
the government could afford it by not going after a
balanced budget.
Habito
said it is not important for the country to achieve a
balanced budget, but to just control the deficit,
particularly in trying times when oil and food prices
are posting record-highs.
“If they
push for a balanced budget and keep revising the date,
all the more that government loses its credibility,”
Habito said.
For
Navarro, doles “disempower” Filipinos by making them
more dependent on the government. Instead, the state
must create projects that will allow Filipinos a chance
to help themselves.
He
recalled how, in the time of President Diosdado
Macapagal (President Arroyo’s father), the government
implemented an Emergency Employment Administration that
gave out funds to the poor in exchange for work.
Navarro
said poor Filipinos would work in two shifts, creating
and filling up holes in the street. He explained that
the day-shift people would create the holes, which the
night-shift people would fill.
Navarro
said by pooling together VAT collections, better
projects could be created. He said the P500 electricity
subsidy could only last a family for a few days, but if
the government pooled all the subsidies, the government
can create better projects.
He cited
as examples the creation of more Botika sa Barangay
outlets, where the poor can buy cheap medicine, or a
livelihood project for communities which will not only
produce a rate of return but a margin of profit for all
who participate in it. |
