Senator Panfilo M. Lacson on Saturday, Nov. 6 pressed the national government to create data-driven solutions to problems hounding its financial assistance to COVID-19 beneficiaries.
‘’Now that we’re in the middle of a pandemic, they should be science-based. We can’t keep guessing. When our data is wrong, we will make wrong decisions. That’s how crucial data is,’’ he said.
Lacson, Partido Reporma chairman and standard-bearer, stressed this when he spoke up in defense of barangay officials who were criticized over the distribution of cash aid or ‘ayuda’ to residents stuck inside their homes because of strict lockdowns at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a public forum held on the sidelines of his political rally in Carmona, Cavite, Friday (November 5), Lacson said village chieftains who took it upon themselves to ration out the P8,000 cash subsidy so that more people could benefit did not deserve to be pilloried.
Lacson shared the story of one barangay official in Silang, Cavite who reached out for help to him because of the complaints he received from his constituents over his decision to cut their ‘ayuda’ in aid of cash-strapped jeepney drivers, who were left out of the list of beneficiaries.
“Nung nabawasan ‘yung P8,000—siyempre, pinapirma naman niya, lahat ginawa niya—ang nangyari siguro naudyukan, nagreklamo. (When the P8,000 allowance was cut—of course, the barangay official sought their consent through signed waivers, he did everything—but apparently there were people goaded into filing complaints against him),” Lacson recalled.
“Kaya ako, hindi ako nag-atubili ‘nung dinala sa aking atensyon, tinawagan ko po ‘yung NBI (National Bureau of Investigation). Sabi ko hindi masama ang intensyon. I’m sure may mga barangay official tayo na nakaranas ng ganyang problema. (So, when this was brought to my attention, I called the NBI right away. I told them the intention was not bad. I’m sure there are other barangay officials who encountered the same problem),” the presidential aspirant noted.
Lacson has been pinning the responsibility over the chaotic rollout of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) of the government on the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), which used obsolete data for its list of subsidy beneficiaries.
The DSWD based its list of SAP recipients on its 2015 Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) index, according to the senator, which denied many citizens who lost their jobs in 2020 from receiving subsidies, including a number of public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers.
Lawmakers tried correcting the issue by allocating a separate P5.58-billion for the financial assistance of PUV drivers under Bayanihan II, but the Commission on Audit (COA) flagged its implementation anew because only one percent of such funds has been distributed thus far.
To avoid similar problems from cropping up in the future, Lacson said he will be pushing for the digitalization of government services to ensure that all data-driven solutions are up to date and to facilitate interoperability between the national and local government units.
“Kaya dapat ‘yung ating gagawin lahat dapat ang tawag doon data-driven. Ngayong, may pandemic science-based, hindi pwedeng hula-hula. ‘Pag mali tayo sa datos, mali ‘yung ating desisyon. Napaka-importante ng data
(What we are supposed to do is to create data-driven solutions. Now that we’re in the middle of a pandemic, they should be science-based. We can’t keep guessing,’’ he explained.
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