RECENTLY, we learned that some families who have loved ones who died received some kind of “burial assistance” from the City Government of Davao. It was in the amount of P5 thousand.
In the case of the family that we learned had received the cash “burial aid,” the member died some four months ago. Or, it was four months of waiting until the burial assistance was processed.
We are actually not familiar with which office at City Hall is responsible for processing applications for such financial aid. Thus, we are certain that there is an utter lack of information dissemination about the availability of financial support.
Our take on this scheme, though, is that the burial assistance is not yet institutionalized as one of the city government’s services to the common man. For now, we believe that such aid is merely made as a “ride-on” in some other services that are intended to give assistance – financial or in-kind – to the Davaoeños.
And this aid is held hostage by the local government’s elective officials’ patronage politics. Meaning, those who badly need the “burial assistance” shall go through certain processes that require the beneficiary family to pass through, first with the barangay captain, then to the district councilor, before the assistance seeker can start processing the application in the office in charge of processing and releasing the cash burial aid.
Maybe there is a need for our city officials – from the executive to the legislative departments of the city government – to find ways, such as crafting an ordinance institutionalizing the “burial aid” giving without the beneficiary families undergoing the traumatic experience of looking for money to spend even for a modest coffin and simple wake for their dead.
Imagine what is experienced now is that the “burial assistance” is being availed of at a time when the dead have long been buried, and the families of the deceased are buried up to their necks by loans here and there just to conduct a modest burial of a relative.
Again, we encourage our councilors to take a look at the processes of giving such assistance. We believe that institutionalizing the provision of burial assistance to Davaoenos will be a much-welcomed development in the city’s governance.
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Congressman Pulong Duterte of Davao City’s first district said in a statement that his office has long been devoid of “allocable budget.” The denial by the national government of such “corruption enticing” “allocables” to his office started in 2022, the lawmaker claimed.
But the General Appropriations Act of 2022 was deliberated and approved by Congress, the members of which are almost one hundred percent pro-Malacanang, then under Pulong’s father, former President Rodrigo Duterte.
We have no doubt that the “allocables” during that fiscal year were already allocated to the beneficiary lawmakers, or shall we say, proponent Congressmen. Maybe the city’s first district lawmaker forgot that the new Malacanang tenant only came in starting the month of July 2022.
Moreover, adding to the lack of credibility to the lawmaker’s claim is the fact that the rift between his family and the current Chief Executive started only after President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. was on his way to his third year in office.
So, how come his claim of his Congressional office not getting any “allocables” from the overall appropriations act starting as early as 2022?
Or, if we have to believe that what the Congressman claimed is gospel truth, then it could be one of the major reasons why the parting of ways of the once allied Duterte and Marcos forces.
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Executive Secretary Ralph Recto is now facing complaints with the Office of the Ombudsman. The charges were filed by some medical practitioners, lawyers, and members of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) against Recto and former PhilHealth president and CEO Emmanuel Ledesma. And the charges are for criminal and administrative violations.
It is an offshoot of the former Finance Secretary’s go-ahead signal for the transfer of some P60 billion in PhilHealth funds back to the Bureau of Treasury.
Well, we have no idea as to the real motive of the complainants. But perhaps one question that needs to be asked if only to have a better basis of judging whether Recto was acting beyond his authority is, “Which would the complainants prefer, having the unused PhilHealth funds invested by some scheming PhilHealth officials in long-term bonds or stocks in some corporations where the income allegedly goes to greedy agency officials, or be transferred back to the Bureau of Treasury and be used instead in the implementation of high social impact projects?
