As we ring the year out, we have nothing but good wishes for the President to succeed in the remaining four years of his term. Our fervent wish is for him to go beyond the political considerations of perpetuating in power, and aim for a nobler historical and lasting legacy of his administration. He can choose to be the leader who made his mark in the nation’s history against many difficult challenges, not least of which is confronting the bullying of superpower provocateur, China, where he has displayed exemplary determined leadership.
He’s at the crossroads of history on the economic front as well. He has hesitated to sign the P6.352-trillion 2025 national budget for very important reasons. It contains an inequitable exercise of the congressional power of the purse, where very vital budgets for social and health services were cut in some departments. The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. lost its subsidy for general health services, which could jeopardize the universal health program, while the Department of Education suffered from the scraping of its computerization project.
Congress inserted amendments, providing for the so-called Ayuda para sa Kapos ang Kita Program (Akap) in the budget of the Department of Social Welfare and Development. We have no illusion that this budget for Akap is like the proverbial pork barrel allocation of the past disbursed at the discretion of particular lawmakers of favored districts, which are election kitties for the coming 2025 polls.
President Marcos has this rare opportunity to be the president of progress. We cannot overemphasize the role that he uniquely has in the country’s history as the leader and how he can make things happen if done with enough resolve. All it takes is for him to be alarmed that the country is losing funds to corruption, estimated by the World Bank at 20 percent of the national budget, and in the 2025 budget, an estimated P1.3 trillion potential waste of tax money can be expected. He can order his economic team to control the budget on the expenditure side so that no single centavo is lost to corruption. The Department of Budget and Management, the Department of Finance, and the Bureau of the Treasury can very well man their funds to ensure such order would be followed. But in the process, he will step on political toes.
If control measures are in place and P1.3 trillion in waste is avoided in this year’s budget and another P1 trillion in each of the next three years of his remaining term, he would have risen to the pantheon of the country’s leaders who made a big difference by sacrificing political interests for the future of the country-rare political chutzpah! What kind of a leader would he choose to be remembered in history on his way out?
MARVEL K. TAN,
marvelktan@yahoo.com