WHY CAN’T PATEROS?

“Why

will there be a need to contract a private firm to do what should be a routinary job for government?

“Malaya said it’s improper to exact a service fee from residents already ‘badly-hit’ by the hyper-extended lockdown.

As this is read, the local government of Pateros, the only remaining town among cities in Metro Manila, may have already scuttled its plan to levy a service fee on the P1,000-per-person aid granted by the national government to those affected by the enhanced community quarantine (EC) in the so-called National Capital Region (NCR) Plus bubble.

That the LGU led by Mayor Miguel F. Ponce III even conjured the infernal idea of charging P20 to P30 from each beneficiary to pay an outfit that will distribute the aid “faster” is vexing as it runs against the very essence of governance which is public service.

This tax on aid, had the proponents not been caught with their hands in the cookie jar, would have served the people of Pateros a great disservice at a time when every peso the poor can get their hands on should count.

That amount can buy several pieces of dried fish that can already serve one square meal for an indigent family. That amount would total to P120, enough to buy over three kilos of rice, if that family had four earners whose jobs were affected by the ECQ.

Surely, when President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the release of nearly P23 billion to fund the latest cash aid, he did not intend any government instrumentality to dip any finger in it. And now, this service fee on that aid by the bright boys and girls of Mayor Ponce? Stupendous stupidity and insensitivity!

Pateros’ cover story for the service fee stinks. Why will there be a need to contract a private firm to do what should be a routinary job for government? If other LGU, naturally using their own personnel with barangay officials doing the actual distribution, can distribute the aid without private subcontractors, why can’t Pateros?

How can Pateros hope to distribute the aid faster if it will have to conduct first a public bidding before that task can be handed to a private firm? Or is there already a preferred distributor which, if true, would make this a potential corruption issue?

It’s not enough for the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to express “dismay” over Pateros’ payout scheme. The department should have put its foot down on the plan the moment it learned of it.

DILG Undersecretary Jonathan

Malaya said that they have “already advised the LGU and they (Pateros) are reconsidering their process” which, if carried out by a private firm, will be through electronic fund transfer.

Malaya reportedly commended the Pateros LGU for floating a scheme intended for the faster distribution, but that commendation, if it was really given, was undeserved. We repeat, other LGU have already distributed the aid and Pateros, as of this writing according to news reports, has yet to disburse a single centavo. Malaya said it’s improper to exact a service fee from residents already “badly-hit” by the hyper-extended lockdown, whose severity has gone to the roofs anew because of rising cases of Covid-19 infections. True.

“The President directed the LGU to distribute P1k per individual for a maximum of P4k for each family to tide over our low-income individuals during this ECQ and to charge the service fee to their affected constituents would be improper,” said Malaya.

But back to that commendation. A pat on the back? More like a figurative slap on the face is needed for those behind this idea.