‘Before we can have a working interconnectivity of databases in various government agencies having related functions, we should first build a complete and reliable database for each sector and concern, something many of our government officials are still learning to do.’
CONGRESSIONAL investigations and budget hearings have become occasions for senators and congressmen to check the performance of many offices and agencies in the Executive department. In many instances, the lawmakers find out that a number of these offices do not even have basic data and statistics with which to guide them in making policies that directly affect their job.
A case in point occurred in the Senate just in one day: last Tuesday, Aug. 30. In the continuation of the Senate’s probe on Sugar Order No. 4, the shortage of sugar and its high market prices and other problems of the industry, Blue Ribbon Committee chairman Sen. Francis Tolentino asked resigned SRA Administrator Hermenegildo Serafica if he knew the actual inventory of sugar inside the country’s warehouses. Serafica sheepishly admitted that he did not know. Tolentino, his colleagues in the chamber, and those watching on TV were aghast at the incompetence of our sugar officials. How could these people make importation plans which showed price, volume, logistical requirements if they do not have basic data?
Another senator who discovered that another agency is blindsided by numbers is Sen. Imee Marcos, this time during the budget hearing of a little-known agency, the National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA). For failure to provide basic information like the total number of persons with disabilities, Senator Marcos has threatened to delete the NCDA’s P20.4-million budget.
NCDA executive director Joniro Fradejas could not provide the Senate committee on social justice, welfare and rural development with the updated number of persons with disability (PWDs) at the public hearing on Senate Bills 31 (Monthly Social Pension for Indigent Persons with Disability) and 501 (Disability Support Fund).
Marcos pointed out that being the government agency in charge of keeping databases of the disabled, the NCDA should at least have the updated records on the number of PWDs.
The senator aired her exasperation: “Everyone is hoping that there is a database of verified and certified listing of the DSWD and NCDA. I would like to inquire whether such a list actually exists. Because a database is our weakness in providing PWDs identification cards as it has been our problem.” This problem translates to the reality that in many local government units (LGUs), there is an unrestrained issuance of PWD identification cards even to persons who are not disabled, using these IDs to avail themselves of discounts and other perks.
Before we can have a working interconnectivity of databases in various government agencies having related functions, we should first build a complete and reliable database for each sector and concern, something many of our government officials are still learning to do.
