Gov’t can save money by freezing ‘irrelevant’ officials

President Duterte has warned that we cannot afford a second wave of COVID-19 infections. Given the miserable state of our national resources, millions of Filipinos will probably die if that happens. The cost of treatment for those caught in that wave is just too prohibitive.

Going slow on the lifting of the community quarantine all over the country is the only way to go. It’s the only thing a Third World country like ours can afford to do — minimize the spread of the highly contagious disease by voluntary or forced isolation.

With millions still out of work and with no other means of livelihood, the government simply cannot feed them for a prolonged period of time. As the whole world still struggles to find a vaccine, Mr. Duterte is at his wits’ end and needs all the financial help he can get from anyone, from anywhere.

So why, with the almost absolute power he now wields, hasn’t he ordered the suspension of all forms of compensation to public officials, say, with pay grades above P50,000 per month until the crisis is over? Does it not look so scandalously wasteful already? The sums of money saved thereby could easily amount to billions which the government could use to avert mass riots and starvation.

For example, Mocha Uson and many other boondogglers in government who get paid from an obscene P150,000 to P200,00 per month for doing “nonessential” chores or errands should be furloughed and frozen for the time being. The nationwide lockdown has rendered their “services” largely irrelevant, if not totally useless, anyway.

Desperate times necessitate desperate measures. It’s time for highly paid government officials to prove the stuff they are made of — that they are really in it for “public service” and “love of country,” not for plunder or personal aggrandizement.

And should they choose to resign from what they might then consider “thankless jobs,” well, good riddance! Truth be told, there will always be others among more than 100 million Filipinos willing to make the sacrifice. This country has never run out of heroes, especially in times of calamity.

Stephen L. Monsanto
[email protected]