The many wonders of Bong Go’s welfare world MY SAY
ISTUMBLE upon this news website about the Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa (BP2) Program being suspended on account of Covid-19 and suddenly I’m amazed at how the program by Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go jives with a longstanding notion of mine on how to solve the perennial traffic woes of Metro Manila. I have in mind, of course, the state of things in the metropolis in the period before the coronavirus pandemic, when vehicular traffic in Manila’s major thoroughfares would stand still for hours on end. People had been complaining about the situation with nobody hitting anything anywhere close to a real solution.
I had been observing though that heavy traffic occurs where and when there is a large influx of commuters. This seemed to indicate that an effective way of decongesting Metro Manila streets is to redirect metropolitan residents elsewhere. But how do you do this when those folks’ source of livelihood is in Metro Manila?
That made me hit an idea: put a ceiling on Metro Manila’s revenues.
Once that ceiling is reached, no more new business enterprises would be welcome in the area, and business entrepreneurs would have to look elsewhere for their investments. In this manner, the daily number of commuters would be maintained at a manageable level, resulting in a comfortable traffic situation.
In fact, carried out as a general policy for all local government units ( LGUs), the scheme of limiting revenues actually results in equitable distribution of development for the whole country.
The Bong Go brainchild is officially created thus: Executive Order 114, “Institutionalizing the Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa Program as a pillar of balanced regional development, creating the Balik Probinsya Council, and for other purposes.”
Relevant to the present discussion, one of the whereases states: “Whereas, Section 1, Article XII of the Constitution states that the goals of the national economy are a more equitable distribution of opportunities, income and wealth and an expanding productivity as the key to raising the quality of life for all, especially the underprivileged; thus, the State shall promote full employment based on sound agricultural development and the empowerment and creation of local industries that make full and efficient use of human and natural resources, and ensure that all sectors of the economy and all regions of the country have optimum opportunities to develop.”
Isn’t Senator Go’s BP2 Program precisely a practical application of the scheme I envision as cited above? With people in great masses flocking back to the provinces, Metro Manila is thereby reduced in population, which reduction in effect amounts to a corresponding diminution of the region’s market for commodities, in the ultimate accounting resulting in minimal revenues for the metropolitan cities.
Of course by “minimal” here is meant just enough to sustain the right government workforce for delivering necessary social services. Actual conduct of local government units brings out this one single fact: that no matter how large its annual revenues are, at the end of the fiscal year, they always get reduced to zero. There may be exceptions to this rule, but generally the case is that whatever revenues the LGUs make, local government executives always find means to write them off entirely with this and that public works project.
In this regard, Manila’s recent experience is one for the books. At the end of his term, Mayor Joseph Estrada bragged that he had left P10 billion in the city’s coffers. Indeed, he did, but succeeding Mayor Isko Moreno griped: “Nag-iwan ka nga ng P10 billion, nag-iwan ka rin naman
ng P10 billion nabayaringutang. So anong iniwan mo, wala.”
Moral lesson of that sad tale: there is no point allowing an LGU limitless leeway in earning revenues. Corruption is endemic in the system and public officials always come up with brilliant ideas for diverting government funds to their private pockets.
Senator Go’s BP2 Program can have the effect of pulling the rug from under the feet of this corrupt practice of outgoing
officials in exhausting government funds before getting out of office. The program just has to have added teeth. You don’t just proclaim general principles of development. You back up those principles with doable methods.
Entrepreneurs will continue putting up businesses in Metro Manila and environs because this is where the consumers are. And provincial folks will continue flocking to the National Capital Region because this is where employment opportunities are.
A legislation is needed whereby LGUs are allowed to earn revenues only up to a pre-set extent, the extent to be determined by the amount of social services necessary to maintain the welfare of the populace.
This is the challenge facing Senator Go for his BP2 Program to be effective. Will he face up to it? That is, initiate a law limiting the prerogative of LGUs to earn revenues thereby setting the stage for the grand implementation of BP2 the country over?
One thing is sure. In various aspects of public welfare, the senator has done wonders already. Even before his election to the Senate, he had been paying particular attention to helping victims of fire — the first public official to do so as a conscious and continuing concern on a countrywide scale.
And then again, there are the Malasakit Centers he has established across the land which have worked wonders as well to the countless members of society’s marginalized sectors who daily come seeking health and medical attention.
Senator Go was the first legislator to raise the alarm over the dumping by Cordillera farmers of their vegetable and fruit harvests for having no buyers as a consequence
of the enhanced community quarantine implemented by the government as demanded by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Nakakalungkot na sa kabila ng kakulangan ng pagkain sa ibang bahagi ng bansa aymay nasasayang na mga gulay at prutasdahilhindimabentaomadala sa mga pamilihan. Dapat lang na inaksyunan ito ng DA ( Department of Agriculture) para walang masayang, kumita ang mga magsasaka, at makarating sa mga nagugutom ang pwedeng
makain (It is sad that while other parts of the country lack in food, there are vegetables and fruits that are wasted because there are no buyers or they cannot be brought to the markets. It is only fitting that the DA should act on this so that nothing is wasted, the farmers earn their income and food is rendered to the hungry).”
As a jobless filmmaker, I was extremely enthused when after last year’s Metro Manila Film Festival, Senator Go proposed the holding of one more such festival in summer in order to help resuscitate a dying Philippine movie industry. And to think that such a laudable idea should come from a non-cinema legislator as Lito Lapid, Bong Revilla, Lani Mercado, Cristina Gonzales — who else? — are, who should have been the first to have raised such concern but didn’t.
That Senator Go did so was enough reason for me to consider him for the lead role of Dr. Jose P. Laurel in Laurel, a film adaptation of NationAboveSelf, a book biography of the wartime Philippine president which I wrote and which was launched last March. A colleague filmmaker considers him a miscast for the role, citing his Chinese lineage. What this colleague is not aware of is that Bong Go’s mother, Marichu Tesoro, is a native of Batangas, which Dr. Jose P. Laurel was. If Bong Go does play Dr. Jose P. Laurel when the film is made, then that would only be accentuating their common roots of courage, patriotism and bravery of which Batangueños are known.
Tomorrow, Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go celebrates his 46th birthday. More power, Senator. Keep safe and healthy and keep delivering those many wonders of welfare to the Filipino nation.