‘If there is an issue worth investigating by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee… after the sugar scandal and the pricey, outdated DepEd laptops, it should be the anomalies in the slow production and distribution of national IDs.’
FINANCE Secretary Benjamin Diokno was very emphatic when he said the country has “fully recovered” (from the COVID-19 pandemic) thus there is no need to give out any more “ayuda” or cash subsidies to poor Filipino households.
The finance chief said, “On the giving out of ayuda in relation to the crisis, I think that should already be discounted because we have actually fully recovered and because of the limited fiscal space. The giving out of ayuda in relation to the pandemic is already a waste of public funds.”
Diokno might have been correct in saying that the nation has recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic (not fully recovered, though) and that the ayuda are public funds that could best be used for more productive state endeavors other than the much-abused dole-outs. The finance secretary, however, is woefully wrong in planning to “limit the beneficiaries of ongoing ayuda to those who have the national ID as an incentive for those who have availed themselves of one.”
Secretary Diokno should be made aware that many Filipinos who lined up in stations and booths for the digital capture of personal information for the national ID have not received these items one to almost two years after the completion of the process. Diokno himself, along with his colleagues Ernesto Pernia and Felipe Medalla, and the officials of the Philippine Statistics Office, were all partly to blame for the slow rollout of national IDs.
Columnist Al Vitangcol, quoting official sources, wrote that the notice of award for the production of national IDs was “signed by then-BSP Governor Diokno on Sept. 29, 2020. The notice to proceed (NTP) was issued to AllCard by BSP Director Rogel Joseph del Rosario on Oct. 1, 2020. The agreement between BSP and AllCard was approved and signed by Diokno on the same date that the NTP was issued.”
“On June 29, 2022, the Commission on Audit transmitted to Diokno its ‘report on the results of audit of the accounts and transactions of the BSP for the years ended Dec. 31, 2021 and 2020.’”
“Part of the COA’s observations on non-financial issues declared, among others, that the quantity of produced and delivered Philippine Identification (PhilID) cards did not meet the requirement provided in the terms of reference; thus, causing delay to the Philippine Identification System project of the government, intended to streamline the transactions in both the public and private sectors.’”
Now, back to the ayuda issue, it is grossly unfair for Diokno to discriminate against Filipinos who have not yet received their IDs and delete them from the ayuda list because he was directly responsible for this stupid mess — the very slow production of IDs and the reported poor quality of these scandal-ridden products, as attested to by the COA.
If there is an issue worth investigating by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee of Sen. Francis Tolentino after the sugar scandal and the pricey, outdated DepEd laptops, it should be the anomalies in the slow production and distribution of national IDs.
