The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) — the government’s flagship “human development program” — patterned after the Bolsa Programs in, among others, Mexico and Brazil, has taken a new meaning if we go by the latest assessment of the think tank IBON Foundation.
Instead of being the “poverty alleviation and empowerment program” that was started in 2007 under the Arroyo administration, 4Ps under P-Noy has, in the eyes of IBON and an increasing number of sectors, come to mean Perception, Promises, Propaganda and Pogi points, which  is a pity indeed.
For a time there, people did not really mind allocating government funds for such urgent intervention, especially since it was meant to tide over the most deprived and marginalized sectors for a limited period of time in exchange for actual participation in a monitored “education and health” alleviation program. But cynicism set in when the program’s funding rose geometrically under P-Noy from P6.609 billion for 777,505 beneficiaries in the last year of the previous
administration to P39.445 billion in 2012. That’s a six fold increase in just a span of two and a half years (P-Noy inherited half of the P10.925 billion allocated in 2010). And what did we get for it?
Instead of empowering the disadvantaged, critics believe we have actually injected a “culture of mendicancy and dependency.” Instead of letting our people flex their muscles and get into sustainable livelihood activities, this program has engendered patronage politics at its worst. Instead of getting our money’s worth for actual work the program has induced the worst kind of counter culture — envy and greed in people.
Which is precisely what IBON and other critics have come to conclude: That after two years of P-Noy our economy and our people are no better than when he took over. As a matter of fact, in many aspects, it may have actually gone worse. IBON cites the continuing jobs crisis as the total number of unemployed and underemployed Filipinos increased in the last two years — from 10.9 million in 2010 to 11.7 million in April 2012 — consisting of 4.4 million unemployed and 7.3 million underemployed. The jobs which have been created thus far are  not as glowing with 43 percent of jobs in the economy consisting of part time work.
That’s a full 16.2 million out of 37.8 employed. And we are not yet talking here of the kind of jobs generated since we are informed that our agriculture and industrial sectors have actually contracted over the past two years as well. So, we ask: would it not have been better if we directed the billions of pesos in the 4Ps program to re-inject vigor and vitality into the two most critical sectors of the economy —  agriculture and industry (or even tourism for that matter) — where
jobs are better compensated and sustainable thus ensuring that we really got to “empower” our people instead of letting them wallow in what the IBON Foundation calls perception economics?


The P850-million PCGG loss: Continuing with our Whatever happened to... series in this column, people are asking whatever happened to the P850-million PCGG loss.  We are referring here to the alleged loss of P850 million (or was it just P160 million as Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) management concedes), which was allegedly carted away by a Singaporebased casino syndicate which victimized a number of government operated casinos. We all know that Pagcor filed a case against the perpetrators headed by a certain Lu Chu Ben alias Ben Lui whose modus operandi was caught on CCTVs in the various casinos. Pagcor  management also reported that this Ben Lui actually died soon after he and the members of his syndicate were allowed to leave the country despite a Department of Juctice (DoJ) hold departure order and a number of cases filed before the courts. We also know that the government casino monopoly never really got to, first, give a full accounting of the loss and second, never really recovered any part of it.
What we don’t know is whether anybody in Pagcor ever got axed or at the very least reprimanded for this gross negligence. I mean the ax must fall on people who allowed this to happen at all We have no inkling even whether Pagcor  conducted any internal inquiry into this matter  as should have been the case. We also don’t know whether the DoJ ever got Immigration Commissioner David to answer questions on why these syndicate members were allowed to get out at all after the crime was already reported to the police and to the BID itself. In fact, wehave no further news on the outcome of the cases filed against members of this syndicate, if at all.
What we do know is Pagcor Chairman Crsitino “Bong” Naguiat Jr., members of the Board as well as some senior officers have been charged before the Office of the Ombudsman for plunder, graft and corruption and gross negligence — all acts punishable under the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, the GOCC Law and the Revised Penal Code. We await with bated breath the outcome of this investigation and other high profile cases involving his own people to give a clearer understanding of P-Noy’s governance style and what to expect as he enters his third year in office.