Visions and revisions

By: Conrado de Quiros

Philippine Daily Inquirer

P-noy isn’t making things worse, economically or otherwise, but he’s missing a lot of chances to make things better. While it’s true enough that “’pag walang corrupt, walang mahirap” (where there are no plunderers, there are no paupers), it’s even truer that pag walang pagbabago, walang saklolo(where there is no transformation, there is no salvation).

Arguably, a government that’s not corrupt, or less so than the previous one, is already an epic change. A government that you trust, or do not distrust as badly as the previous one, is already an epic change. But it is not enough. What the public expects from the P-Noy government is even more epic, simply because what it did to bring it to power was just as epic. It was not the brilliance of those who are currently in power that brought them to power, or heaven forbid their campaign managers. It was the brilliance of the people. They were the ones who had the eyes to see P-Noy was “the one,” they were the ones who had the heart, or balls, to make him so.

They do not just expect him to be virtuous, they expect him to be courageous. They do not just expect him to do things differently, they expect him to do things heroically.

Diverting a huge portion of the budget to doles isn’t doing things heroically, even if it’s doing things differently. At the very least that is so because it raises suspicions of dividing spoils to favor favorites, or worse of allowing those same favorites to campaign this early for 2013. Doles are the best way to buy votes. But doles do not check joblessness, they do not even check poverty. Not in the long run, not even in the short run.

At the very most that is so because the same money could have been spent for emergency employment. That is a time-honored way of getting out of the rut of exceedingly bad times, or since we’ve been in that perpetual state anyway at least of checking worsening poverty. That was what Franklin Roosevelt did during the Great Depression. He opened up millions of emergency jobs in public works, quite apart from giving relief to the unemployed. Spending for public works practically disappeared during the last few years of Gloria’s rule.

Just as well, you want to subsidize, subsidize agriculture. Or more specifically, subsidize the farmers.

Agriculture doesn’t just provide food for the table, it provides employment—or self-employment, or livelihood—for most Filipinos. The neglect—no, abandonment—of agriculture is one of the biggest sources of poverty in this country. Who wants to farm now? Even the rice terraces have gone to pot, and I don’t mean marijuana (though I could be wrong), for lack of people wanting to till land anymore. Farming brings nothing. With importation being regarded as the cheapest way to get rice (it is not in the long run), the Arroyo government relegated farmers to the status of beggars.

Without seeds, fertilizer, insecticide, irrigation, and whatever else a farmer needs to grow things, and having a rice cartel ripping them off on the price of their harvest after they have paid more than their due to usurers, what else is left? They can’t even afford to buy their own rice. The last thing farmers want is for their children to follow in their muddy footsteps. The first is to go abroad and become OFWs. I’ve heard a lot of comments recently about today being the best time to try to attract investors in agriculture. I’m all for it. But first invest in the farmers. No farmers, no agriculture. No farming, no employment.

Food security, or food sovereignty as it is called now, should be on top of the list. It is so even in countries that can afford to import food a hundred times over. It is so in the United States, it is so in Europe, it is so in Japan. These are countries that heavily subsidize their agriculture, these are countries that heavily protect their agriculture, WTO notwithstanding. We’d be fools not to do so. Especially in our case—a fact that cannot be sufficiently belabored—where farming doesn’t just put food on the table but puts work in the hands of most Filipinos.

And finally, I cannot for the life of me understand why this government isn’t using People Power to power the country to the 21st century. People Power doesn’t just mean toppling governments, it can also mean building a nation. Proof of it is the very existence of this government itself. This is a government that came to power on an Edsa masquerading as an election. This is a government that came to power on the strength of People Power masquerading as voters. People Power is the one awesome weapon P-Noy has that his predecessor did not have. It is the one awesome weapon P-Noy has that his predecessor strove desperately to find but could not.

But he’s not using it.

Efren Peñaflorida has already shown whole new vistas of what is possible if you can harness the spirit of voluntarism and make it a partner in governance. The “kariton classroom” is one of the most inspired inventions in this country, and I don’t know why it cannot be made to sprout like mushrooms by the Department of Education and other private groups. The “kariton classroom” points the way out of the rut and how to get there. That is by educating the country, that is by teaching the masa to read and write, that is by bringing the light of learning to the poorest of the poor. And that is by bringing learning to them and not by forcing them to go to it. That is the only way you can stop ignorance, that is the only way you can stop joblessness, that is the only way you can stop poverty. The enlightened does not ask, “What job can I find today?” The enlightened asks, “What work can I do today?”

No, this government isn’t making things so much worse, it’s just not making things so much better. As it should.