Happy Independence Day! Let's Work!

METRO MANILA, METRO CEBU, ARE NOT THE PHILIPPINES

 

Two years ago, I thought it was timely to post on the the subject. Now, I have yet to feel any difference, so I am reissuing the same post with sigh, fatigue, and hope as well.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Four months into the Pnoy presidency, it’s not surprising that Pulse Asia’s poll on trust rating for the president yielded a high 80%. That, despite the controversies that hounded the fledgling administration. No doubt the president enjoys the trust of the people. In fact, it is that trust argument that catapulted him to the presidency.

The president, on several occasions, has been trumpeting the inroads and headways on reforms that his administration has made. That’s welcome news, but I’m afraid that’s only true in Metro Manila, and so in behalf of the people in the provinces, I would like to remind the president that Metro Manila and Metro Cebu are not all of the Philippines. Whatever reforms his administration intends to implement must be implemented, save for any legal or other reasonable limitations, across the entire Philippine archipelago.

Take for instance his Daan na Matuwid, Pag Walang Kurap, Walang Mahirap challenge. That does not even reverberate in the provinces. The provinces are completely out the national government’s radar, I’d suspect and like to believe, judging by how “business as usual” it is out there.

Pnoy’s administration must implement a sweeping investigation on all aspects of local government in the provinces: branches and agencies of government, particularly agencies that rank high in the corruption scale, including Government Owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCCs). Start with lifestyle checks, and proceed with thorough investigation: assets vis-à-vis capacity to acquire.

The agencies tasked to watch and check for, or prosecute public officers for offenses and abuses, are mum for reasons known only to them. They, too, must be checked on and prosecuted for conspiracy, complicity, nonfeasance, malfeasance, misfeasance or whatever legal justification the administration's legal bright boys and girls can find to make sure that their acts or omissions do not go unpunished. If a true prosecutorial investigation is conducted by operatives that have the required integrity and grit, they’ll find that laws have different standard of enforcement in the provinces.

People in the provinces are sick and tired of being excluded in the government’s real reform agenda. Before they become completely dismissive of the administration's so-called programs for reform, the president had better include them in his Philippines. It’s not enough to say that he does, it is more important he get people on the ground that will make his reforms felt.