THE REPORTED administration push for Charter change even as the country is in the midst of a pandemic and crisis that the world has yet to effectively address is tone-deaf to say the least.
This obsession with Charter change shows another misplaced priority of the administration even if it is yet to fully address the COVID-19 pandemic. The move for Cha-cha especially now is a waste of time, effort and the much needed funds that should be rechanneled in fighting COVID-19.
The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) is reported to continue with its push for “Cha-cha” proposals, which will be presented supposedly to Congress in July when the legislature’s second regular session begins?
What can we say? This move is utterly preposterous. DILG personnel and budget being utilized for Cha-cha should instead be realigned and used to fortify our healthcare system by buying more reliable personal protective equipment for healthcare workers, conducting genuine widespread testing and intensifying pro-active contact tracing.
The Cha-cha budget can also be used for relief goods and can be added to the social amelioration program to be given to lockdown affected families.
The reported budget realignment is another misplaced priority. The budgets of social and basic services are slashed but that of intelligence and confidential funds remain intact?
According to House Deputy Minority leader Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate, the education budget suffered a big deduction due to the realignment, with the Department of Education budget reduced by a hefty P21.9 billion to P499.5 billion, followed by the budget of the Commission on Higher Education that was cut by P13.9 billion to P32.9 billion. State universities and colleges), meanwhile, were inflicted with a P7.6-billion reduction in their 2020 allotments, to a smaller P66.1 billion.
What is more appalling though is that instead of realigning a big chunk of these pooled funds to the Department of Health or government hospitals to fight COVID, only P1.9B went to the department, while, the Finance department gained P35.8 when it is hardly in the frontline in handling the disease.
The Social Welfare department got the biggest additional funds of P165.2 billion supposedly to be given to those affected by the quarantine. Have the funds been released already?
So much for misplaced priorities.
