OF SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT
While we were rocked by the news of alleged irregularities in the use of confidential funds in one government office, it was as shocking to know of another irregularity in the procurement of laptops in the Department of Education, of all departments. As if these were not enough, the Commission on Audit flagged the same department over its feeding program. Audit teams found “there were either unsanitary packing, questionable expiry dates, or pests and molds on the bread meant for students.” The program was funded up to ₱5.69 billion.
In the last two weeks, the Filipino people also learned that evading jail term and getting away with it, at least until yesterday, is not only for the movies. The suspended Mayor of Bamban, Tarlac Alice Guo succeeded in leaving the Philippines presumably through the southern back door without any trace of departure from the country. Her lawyers and notary public continued to maintain “she is still very much around.” Her arrest yesterday by Indonesian authorities proves they were not exactly truthful.
Again, our law enforcement authorities have more homework to do when fugitive televangelist Apollo Quiboloy and his five co-accused in a human trafficking case remain at large for months after a Pasig regional trial court (RTC) issued the arrest warrant. The authorities also failed to serve another arrest warrant against Quiboloy subsequently issued by a Davao RTC over a sexual abuse case.
And yes, while the directive to sweep all “sleeping” funds of government owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) has been justified as prudent, one that minimizes the need for higher taxes or more borrowings, this broadsheet reported last Friday the successful launch of public offshore commercial borrowing of $2.5 billion, or at ₱57 to a dollar, more than ₱142 billion. For the first half of 2024 alone, it was also reported that the country’s foreign borrowings already aggregated ₱267.4 billion.
Which brings us to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) from where another $500 million is expected, or around ₱28.5 billion. This loan is dedicated to climate finance and is part of the $10 billion commitment announced by ADB in Dubai last year. That’s ₱570 billion aimed at improving the climate resilience of local communities in the Philippines. Investments are expected to go to public transport, clean energy, disaster risk management and social protection.
With dwindling fiscal space, we have no option but to pin tremendous hope on this program loan. So far this year, we have received two deafening wake-up calls from the country’s third tropical cyclone this year, typhoon Carina which literally punished us last July 24, and tropical storm Enteng that caused no small amounts of floods and landslides in Luzon this week.
Contrary to the allegations of some, the problem in disaster management is not the number of appropriate weather advisories issued by, in the case of the Philippines, PAGASA. PAGASA continues to monitor these types of weather developments 24 hours a day. Execution of PAR plus five remains, meaning, the advisory covers the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) but expanded by five degrees in case a tropical cyclone develops beyond PAR.
As a global community, it is our lack of sensitivity and response to the impacts of climate change including what the ADB and the United Nations in their recent report called “slow and sudden onset of weather events” that are compromising our ability, and those of other countries, in meeting the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While some steady progress has been made in enhancing food security, mitigating malnutrition and improving public health, more progress is absolutely required. The challenges of climate change, health crisis and the scourge of inflation are wreaking havoc on agricultural and labor productivity, loss of jobs and displacement of people. As a result, our progress in promoting food security, and reducing poverty is severely hampered.
We need to do more. We need to expedite the disposition of cases involving POGO champions and their escapades, or the unmitigated incompetence or lack of accountability of some in authority. We should avoid dissipating scarce public resources in favor of non-essential but favored public projects.
Thus, the report of the ADB and the United Nations’ Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the United Nations Development Programme, “People and Planet: Addressing the Interlinked Challenges of Climate Change, Poverty and Hunger in Asia and the Pacific,” released last February 2024 could not have stressed that message enough. Incremental progress, that which we are only capable of, is considered many times inadequate in achieving the SDGs of 2015 — zero poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, among others.
The problem in many countries, if not all of them, is that “global and regional policies do not adequately support the integration of climate priorities with efforts to address poverty and hunger.” We put a wedge between economic development and health, for instance, or disaster risk reduction and poverty and income inequality, for that matter. Some governments are willing to forego strong promotion of public health or quality education in favor of petty local infrastructure projects or expansion of government plantilla positions even as digital solutions are readily available.
Before it is too late, we need to put in our spirit that weather shocks continue to be more severe over the years, that their burdens are unevenly distributed to the disadvantage of the impoverished nations and peoples. No less than UN Resident Representative Gustavo Gonzalez who declared that the Asia-Pacific region, the Philippines included, “is not on track to achieve any of the SDGs.” If this statement from the United Nations two years ago is to be believed, SDGs would only be achieved in 2065 or 40 years from today.
In fact, the Philippine Statistics Authority earlier this year reported that for us, less than 20 percent of SDG indicators were on track, with nearly 30 percent regressing. With our poor capacity to roll with the weather punches, we cannot say more than that for our efforts to reduce poverty and hunger, as well as achieve quality public health and education.
While we spend time on other things…