Burdening the burdened

In an ideal society, the role of government is to lighten their citizen’s individual burdens by providing system resources and creating physical and social infrastructures that enable each person to pursue quality of life. This is the only justification for taxes—we pool people’s taxes so we can provide services and resources that we otherwise cannot provide for ourselves. We pay taxes so that we can have safe roads and accessible transportation. We pay taxes so that government can ensure secure supply of basic goods. We pay taxes so that everyone can have access to quality education and health care. We pay taxes to enable and sustain livable communities.

So how come our burdens as citizens are getting heavier and heavier?

I dare say, the quality of life for the average Filipino has gotten considerably worse. We are affronted by rapidly rising costs of goods such as rice and other produce. In response to a looming rice shortage, Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin simply suggested to eat “kamote” instead (which, by the way, is not a cheaper alternative to rice). This trivializes the cultural importance of rice in the Filipino diet. More insidiously, it helps government evade their responsibility in solving the rice crisis and instead places the burden on Filipinos to change their eating habits. The Department of Agriculture officials are now in denial about the President’s promise of bringing the price of rice down to P20 per kilo, saying that there was never such a plan.

Traffic in the metro has now further worsened compared to pre-pandemic levels, resulting in Filipinos having the burden of spending many unproductive hours stuck on the road (and in the sweltering heat and the pouring rain). Despite what Presidential Adviser Joey Concepcion insists, it is not a sign of a booming economy. The economy actually loses billions daily due to traffic. Such mindsets help government avoid having to solve traffic woes once and for all.

More than just trivializing people’s concerns about traffic, Concepcion even suggested to do away from work-from-home arrangements to boost consumer spending. The logic implies that regular workers will be forced to spend more (e.g., on meals, transportation, etc.) if they return to their offices. Instead of focusing on increasing disposable income, which does boost the economy, he places the burden on regular Filipino workers to be forced to spend whatever meager income they have on things they would not otherwise wish to spend on.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has been notorious for optics faux pas. In view of rising costs of basic goods, they have previously advised Filipinos on depressing “noche buena” meal plans (remember the 1/8 kilo of ground pork for family-sized portion of spaghetti?). More recently, DTI Secretary Alfredo Pascual insisted that the current daily minimum wage of P610 is sufficient for a family of five. And so the burden is passed back to Filipino families to make do instead of DTI assuring us that they will do what they can to bring costs back down.

Newly released travel guidelines for the Bureau of Immigration (BI) also pose considerably more burden to Filipino travelers. Not only is our passport too weak for other countries, but it is also apparently too weak for our own BI. Instead of taking responsibility for investigating human trafficking operations, they have placed the burden of proving innocence on to individual Filipinos who have already gone through the process of obtaining their passport and visas and paid for their flights.

The latest agency who showed a lack of understanding for those they serve is the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development. In a hearing, where representatives charged that the poorest of the poor cannot afford the supposed low-cost housing units costing P1.2 to P1.4 million each, Urban Development Secretary Jerry Acuzar explained that those who cannot afford their housing are merely lazy. This implies that people do not have work simply do not want to work, ignoring the fact that most jobs are not available to people with minimal education qualifications. Our current job market is such that even minimum wage positions demand some college experience—with one business recently posting Miss Universe-like qualifications for their minimum wage workers! Even with the proposed government subsidy for the monthly amortization, beneficiaries would still have to pay at least P2,000 a month on top of maintenance and operation costs of such buildings. Instead of providing genuine low-cost housing, they have burdened the poorest of the poor to have to pay for million-peso homes.

It is time for government to take their responsibilities sincerely and release Filipinos from these unnecessary burdens. Filipinos already work hard to take care of their families and do the best they can in their livelihoods despite monstrous barriers. It is time for government to do their part and not further burden the burdened.

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