Gov.ph

Quickly now, can you guess what the following acronyms are? (Hint: They are all government projects.) RATS. RIPS. PP. PPP. NHTS. Maybe the acronyms are difficult. Are you aware then of the following programs that I’m going to spell out completely: Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino. Case Rates Package. Z Benefit Package. No Balance Billing.

I’ll explain all those terms, and if you want more I suggest you visit gov.ph, which serves as the national government’s Official Gazette. If I remember right, the past Official Gazette featured official government documents months after they were formulated. Now you can read President Aquino’s State of the Nation Address on the day of the Sona itself, together with a translation from Filipino into English.

I read through both versions and went on, through a link, to a 2012 Sona Technical Report, also posted on gov.ph. The Sona took an hour and a half to read, but the technical report is even longer, running to 53 pages. It’s an impressive report for the most part, well-organized and documented.

I actually found the report informative, sometimes picking up stuff that almost seems trivial but isn’t. Like, did you know nine major intersections in Metro Manila now have those new traffic signals with timers? The timers tell you whether you—a motorist or pedestrian—can proceed leisurely, make a mad dash, or just give up and slow down as you approach an intersection. So there, the report tells you 73 more will be installed.

The report had all kinds of acronyms, some of them amusing, like RATS for “Run After The Smugglers” and RIPS for “Revenue Integrity Protection.” PPP is an acronym you will hear more in the years ahead, referring to public-private partnership and which the Aquino administration is determined to expand. PP is not Pamantasan ng Pilipinas, which we rejected some 30 years ago because it sounds like pipi (mute, which is what some government officials would like us to become). For your next parlor game or quiz show, PP means pistol-to-police ratio. Apparently, the current ratio is one pistol for every two policemen, and the technical report says that by the end of the year we will have a PP of 1:1. Now why don’t I feel a PP of 1:1 should be something to rejoice about?

I suggest that university professors tap the report, and the gov.ph site, for their lectures and research, as well as for materials for students to analyze. I dashed off specific links to some researchers I’ve been working with at the University of the Philippines on various projects related to economic development and to health, and suggested they walk through the entire gov.ph site to see what else can be used.

I did think, reading through the technical report, that it’s a pity we get to hear of so many government programs only on the day of the Sona. The information tends to be so voluminous that our brains shut down, unable to process what these programs mean.

There’s something for everyone in this technical report, including those from the opposition. Comb through the statistics—I’m thinking of a fine-toothed comb like the one you use for lice (smile)—and you’ll find something to grumble about, I hope not without offering some possible solutions.

Must-know programs

I’m going to concentrate today on programs Filipinos should be aware of, and tapping into, or helping others to utilize.

Most importantly, there’s a NHTS-PR (National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction) which the government uses to identify the most needy of Filipinos—in total, some 5.2 million households. My friends in the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) tell me it’s still being fine-tuned, sometimes missing out on some of the poorest households, so if you’ve been helping out some poor family, or are involved in community work, check to see if the NHTS-PR is working in your area or coordinate with the DSWD to reach these families with your projects.

The NHTS-PR is used to identify families for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino, also known as the conditional cash transfer program, where families are given a cash subsidy with certain “strings” attached, like making sure that their kids stay enrolled in school, or that pregnant mothers get their prenatal checkups.

It turns out the NHTS-PR isn’t just linked to the Pantawid program. It’s used as well to identify very needy senior citizens, who can then get a P500 monthly pension. I know the amount seems measly, but for a very poor household that can hardly make ends meet for the children, that additional allocation for senior citizens can be useful, especially if you can tap into health programs.

Health benefits

This takes us to a No Balance Billing program that was introduced last year, again for households identified through the NHTS-PR as well as through local government units. In this scheme, government facilities cannot charge more than the maximum given in PhilHealth’s Case Rate Packages and Z Benefit Packages, which means a patient should not have to pay additional expenses from his/her own pocket.

The Case Rate Packages apply to 23 of the most common medical conditions (e.g., dengue, pneumonia, asthma, typhoid fever) and surgical procedures (e.g., cataracts, caesarean section). The No Balance Billing program also applies to Z Benefit Packages, where PhilHealth will give P100,000 for early-stage breast cancer, P210,000 up to three years for standard risk childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia and P100,000 for low- to intermediate-risk prostate cancer.

The technical report also mentions a Student Grants in Aid (GIA) program for poverty alleviation, which aims to have at least one college-educated member in every family in the country’s 609 poorest municipalities. But, I thought, there are colleges and there are colleges, meaning if the scholar ends up in some diploma mill, the GIA would be a waste. I thought again of our own UP students in need. Just last Monday I had to endorse a request from a student to defer his tuition payment. His family income was reported at P36,000 per annum. You read right—per annum—which just so dismayed me. Here’s a promising student who made it into UP and is desperately trying to make ends meet. We’ve gotten him a student assistantship but that pays only P2,500 a month.

The technical report reminds us of the overwhelming needs in the country, and how much more has to be done. In his Sona, the President reminded the people that it’s been the Filipinos themselves who made all the accomplishments possible. The technical report reminds us there’s much more that needs to be done, even as it gives us some leads on what we can do, from participating in the Metro Manila Development Authority’s traffic monitoring (mmdatraffic.interaksyon.com) to keeping tabs on the use of the national budget (budgetngbayan.com).