STAR: SEAL OF GOOD HOUSEKEEPNG
MANILA, FEBRUARY 28, 2011 (STAR) SKETCHES By Ana Marie Pamintuan - They have different "working styles," President Aquino said in describing his differences with the man who heads the Department of the Interior and Local Government. And one day he may pick someone else as DILG chief.
Secretary Jesse Robredo shrugs off this uncertainty in his Cabinet appointment. His hold on the DILG post seems tenuous; he is one of two Cabinet members (the other is Environment Secretary Ramon Paje) still not nominated by P-Noy to the Commission on Appointments (CA) for confirmation.
The situation is unfortunate because the DILG has supervision over the government units that are directly in charge of delivering basic services to the public.
After the hostage fiasco in August last year, there were rumors that Robredo would either be fired or asked to resign. Robredo received no word from P-Noy, who simply groused later about their differences in working styles. Robredo stayed put, pointing out that it's his deputy, Rico Puno, who's supposed to be in charge of the "interior" part of the DILG.
P-Noy then sent Puno (not the singer, although the singer might do a better job) to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation for a crash course on police work. Aren't these programs supposed to be for regular police officers?
And in what is seen as a roundabout way of expressing his displeasure over his DILG chief, P-Noy has sat on Robredo's nomination to the CA.
If P-Noy prefers to wait for Robredo to quit, he may have to sit on the nomination for a long time.
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Robredo has plunged into the job – the "local government" (and informal settlers) part of the DILG – with the same zeal that he displayed when he was mayor of Naga City.
"I'm comfortable with this setup," Robredo told us when he dropped by The STAR last week.
Last year he launched a system that he hopes will pave the way for long-term transparency and accountability in local government units (LGUs).
He issued a circular requiring full disclosure by LGUs of all bids, budgets and quarterly statements of financial operations covering all projects, and not just those costing P50 million or more. All the details must be posted on the Internet for easy counterchecking by anyone interested.
Robredo wants all LGUs to become like Naga under his watch, when even the price of paracetamol purchased by health centers was posted on the city's website.
LGUs that comply with the circular get a "seal of good housekeeping" that will give them priority in the allocation of resources by the DILG.
Of about 80 provinces, 20 fully complied by yearend with the circular on full disclosure. Thirty cities also fully complied, with 20 others achieving partial compliance.
A P500-million "Performance Challenge Fund" was set up for LGUs that received the seal of good housekeeping. It initially targeted fourth-, fifth- and sixth-class municipalities. Among those that received the seal was Datu Paglas in Maguindanao.
The results were so encouraging that the system is now part of budgeting requirements under the 2011 General Appropriations Act. This means LGUs that fail to comply with the full disclosure requirement can be sued by the DILG for violating the GAA.
Robredo said the Performance Challenge Fund was initially taken from the personnel (or personal) services appropriation of the DILG – the same "PS" diverted to personal bank accounts in the military. Last year the P396 million released (on time) to 110,000 Philippine National Police personnel for their Christmas bonus was taken from the PNP's PS.
Robredo can honestly claim to have walked into the PS system, whose loopholes for fund "conversion" he has plugged. PNP funds are now released directly to police stations, which must post their detailed expenditures on the PNP website. Under the 2011 GAA, each cop gets a 55 percent increase in funding allocation.
This year the Performance Challenge Fund will likely be sourced from the road user's tax, from which the DILG gets an annual share of about P3 billion.
If supervision over the conditional cash transfers is turned over by the social welfare department to LGUs (sure to be opposed by the World Bank), only LGUs with the seal of good housekeeping will be allowed to take over.
* * *
While it's Puno who's in charge of the PNP, the DILG secretary is ex officio chair of the National Police Commission. In this capacity, Robredo has a say in the system of assignment and promotion in the PNP, which he wants insulated from politics.
He is aware that local government executives in fact want more control over the local police. As a compromise, Robredo said if he receives a request from a mayor affecting the assignment or promotion of a certain police officer, he would agree, but only if the cop deserves it, or if the request is "within the zone of consideration."
Robredo is also working indirectly to confront the jueteng problem. The anti-jueteng campaign has been derailed by allegations that Puno himself is protecting a certain powerful bloc in the illegal gambling industry.
Two options are being considered. One is to make small-town lottery a bettor-driven, viable alternative to jueteng. Another is to make the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office get its share of STL earnings based on presumptive sales, with absolute amounts collected instead of percentage sharing. Notorious jueteng lords will not be allowed to operate STL, which is being used as a legal cover for jueteng.
* * *
There was no direct evidence presented in the recent jueteng controversy against Puno, with whom Robredo swears he is "seeing more than eye to eye."
I asked Robredo if he is worried that people whose "livelihoods" are threatened by his reforms would stage a revolt.
"It's OK. I think if there is change there must be a revolution… How do you change a system that you have walked into without triggering a revolt? That is the challenge," he replied. "It's not an easy job."
He emphasized that his reforms target systems rather than the personalities behind the systems.
I asked him what he thought of P-Noy's hesitation to nominate him to the CA.
He recalled that as a member of the Liberal Party's 2010 campaign team, he was put in charge of the scheduling of LP standard-bearer Noynoy Aquino's sorties.
Being an advocate of "maximum reach, maximum meetings," Robredo packed the schedule because he said he wanted to "maximize the use of (Noynoy's) time." The candidate was not pleased.
Robredo said that from the start he never thought he would stay long in his post. "I'll just do what I have to do," he said.
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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