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Issues to be tackled at Visayas presidential debate

Philstar.com

March 19, 2016 | 10:10pm

CEBU CITY — Presidential candidates Jejomar Binay, Grace Poe, Mar Roxas and Rodrigo Duterte are expected to answer questions on main areas of concern, namely corruption in government, disaster preparedness, climate change, health and education.

Fighting corruption

The Philippines ranked 95th of 186 countries in the Corruption Perceptions Index for 2015. The country dropped 10 notches lower that year, ranking behind the four other founding members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Northeast Asian economies in the index corruption showing the relative degree of corruption by ranking countries.

According to the annual study prepared by watchdog Transparency International. the country scored 35/100.

The Palace, meanwhile, welcomed the Corruption Perceptions Index but dismissed that it is not equivalent to reality. "What is more important than perception is reality. The reality is that for the past five years, the Philippine government has instituted major reforms that have strengthened the governance structure of our country," Communication Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said.

A World Bank Study said in 2006, corruption in the Philippines is considered to be the worst in East Asia's economies. Hongkong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy's survey results also indicated that the Philippines is the most corrupt in the region. A Forbes report said corruption has a high shot of around $94 million per case citing that it even involved former presidents Joseph "Erap" Estrada and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

The Aquino administration seated in 2010, on the other hand, vowed to provide a culture of intergrity, accountability and transparency in public service.

To fight corruption, it installed a new Ombdusman in charge of campaigning for clean government, discovering anomalies. The current administration replaced the Ombudsman's predecessor allegedly mishandling cases. It also intensified anti-corruption drives in revenue-generating agencies.

Under the Aquino administration, several high ranking officials were charged for misusing of funds, betrayal of public distrust, tax evasion, and other corrupt practices. These are impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona, Arroyo, former officials of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, Sens. Jinggoy Estrada, Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr., Juan Ponce Enrile, alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles, among others.

Disaster preparedness

The Philippines is known to be one of the most at risk from natural disasters such as typhoons, flooding, earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic eruptions. It was ranked third by of 173 countries in the the World Risk Index most vulnerable to disaster risk and natural hazards.

The Philippines experiences approximately 20 tropical cyclones each year and other climatic changes like the El Niño phenomenon but from 2010 to 2012, the country encountered 46 typhoons and 1,019 recorded non-typhoon-related disasters affecting over 5.6 families and resulted to around P93.13 billion in damages.

The government said the disasters eat up government funds averaging to P15 billion annually. It also established National Climate Change Action Plan and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management plan to ensure that the government is improving the resiliency of local communities and systematically integrating the various disaster risk management and climate change adaptation activities, coordination, and financing mechanisms of the government.

To help the country recover, the government in cooperation with Pag-IBIG's Calamity Loan Program, released a P12.54 billion emergency relief assistance which includes financial assistance, food and medicine for more than 2.64 million families affected by the calamities. Non-government organizations also help with financial, food, medicine, housing and livelihood assistance with P15.21 billion aid that was benefited by over three million family-victims.

To combat and prevent disasters and its damages, the government launched programs such as the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards, established in 2012, equipped with automated weather stations and automated rain gauges, and is tasked to issue real-time reports on weather forecasts tapping social networks to immediately respond during emergency. It was also tasked to come up with a Master Plan for Flood Management in Metro Manila and Surrounding Areas, a long-term flood management scheme to be implemented up to 2035 in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

Aside from the two programs, the government's Department of Public Works nd Highways prepared 416 infrastructure projects to drainage, waterways, riverways, construction of pumping stations, addressing flood problems in Metro Manila. This costs P6.2 billion. The government also provided the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) funds for rehabilitation of pumping stations for those affected by flooding.

The MMDA also last year conducted an earthquake drill and various earthquake awareness talks in cooperation with National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council and Philippines Institute of Volcanology and Seismology since the country is situated on the ring of fire and there are areas in Metro Manila and outside, located near the West Valley Fault, prone to experience a magnitude 8 earthquake.

Climate change

The Philippines was one of the nearly 200 nations who signed the Paris agreement in December 2015 which seeks to limit the rise in global temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius.

The agreement is the first global pact which fights climate change and calls for the world to collectively cut and eliminate greenhouse gas pollution.

During the 21st United Nations conference on climate change in the French capital, the countries pledged to limit the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity beginning at some point between 2050 and 2100.

President Benigno Aquino III called on world leaders to help countries most vulnerable to climate change as he delivered a speech before the Climate Vulnerable Forum (V20).

"The Philippines, with the rest of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a group that will soon grow to represent at least one billion people, makes our case. In the name of all our citizens, we ask you to give our proposal for more climate financing for developing countries the consideration it deserves," Aquino said.

The V20 is an international partnership of small countries facing high risks due to a warming planet. Its members include the Philippines, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Maldives, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Ghana, Nepal, Timor-Leste, Barbados, Kenya, Tuvalu, Bhutan, Kiribati, Rwanda, Vanuatu, Costa Rica, Madagascar, Saint Lucia and Vietnam.

Education

The Department of Education is set on implementing the K to 12 educational program, which will extend basic education in the Philippines by two years and but that the government claims will make high school graduates more eligible for employment.

The Supreme Court has dismissed petitions for a temporary restraining order on the program but has yet to decide on the legality of the program, which petitioners say was ordered implemented without public consultation.

The DepEd expects around 1.3 million students to enter senior high school in school year 2016-2017 even as critics of the program say the added years in basic education will be an added burden to parents of poor students. Groups like Kabataan party-list and Anakbayan have also said that the program commercializes education and turns schools into training grounds for labor.

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In a briefer on the K-12 program, DepEd said students "may choose a specialization based on aptitude, interests, and school capacity." Senior high school students will have the option to choose from the Academic, Technical-Vocational-Livelihood, and Sports and Arts tracks.

Tech-voc students will also have the opportunity to earn certifications of competency that will, the government says, "improves employability of graduates in fields like Agriculture, Electronics, and Trade."

Schools have been working to get certified as senior high schools, with some private schools offering to take in public high school students whose schools have yet to set up senior high school programs or lack slots for them. The DepEd has a voucher program to help defray the cost of enrolling at the private schools.

But implementation of the K-12 program is just the latest challenge that the DepEd faces. The government has been working to address a lack of classrooms. According to the Official Gazette, the government has built 86,478 classrooms between 2010 and 2015, much more than the 17,305 built from 2005 to 2010. It said this was "enough to cover the 66,800 classroom deficit in 2010."

It also said the government has built or bought 2,573,212 school desks, putting the student to seat ratio at 1:1 since December 2012. The textbook to student ratio has also reportedly been at 1:1 since the end of 2012.

DepEd had also hired 128,105 teachers as of February 2015 against a shortage of 145,827 in 2010.

Tertiary education

According to the Commission on Education, fewer students enrolled in Science, Technology, Engineering, Agro-Fisheries and Mathematics programs—707, 819—than did in non-STEAM programs. There were 3.1 million students in non-STEAM programs in Academic Year 2014-2015, the latest data available on the CHED site.

They were enrolled in 680 State Universities and Colleges and 1708 private higher education institutions.

Although the CHED said the average tuition in SUCs was P176 per unit (AY 2015-2016), student groups have been protesting what they say are unaffordable school fees. They say these will force many to drop out of college.

Health

The next president will inherit a healthcare system where coverage is steadily rising but where access to medical facilities is lagging behind.

According to the annual reports of the Department of Health and of state health care firm Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), 86.2 million Filipinos are already covered by mandatory healthcare insurance, around 87 percent. PhilHealth president Alex Padilla said this month that the number of beneficiaries is closer to 93 million, with the firm paying out P97 billion in claims in 2015.

Padilla assured beneficiaries and members this month that PhilHealth is in good fiscal shape after reports that the firm only had enough money to operate for 10 more months. He said that aside from profit from PhilHealth's investments, the firm also has reserve funds that have been growing steadily from about P112 billion in 2012 to P128 billion in 2015.

PhilHealth implements a No Balance Billing policy, meaning sponsored members—those whose contributions are being paid for by another individual, government agencies or by private entities—who undergo selected medical procedures and treatement will not have to pay more than the case rates set by the state firm.

Sponsored members include indigents, abandoned children, and barangay workers. Indigent women whose premiums will be shouldered by government entities and who are about to give birth can also benefit from the No Balance Billing policy.

PhilHealth also has a Z-Benefit Package, which covers diseases like breast cancer and childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Members who avail of the package can get assistance of from P100,000 to P600,000.

PhilHealth's all case rates system, which sets fixed rates for cases, also covers 4,698 medical conditions and 4,431 procedures and packages.

"Members and dependents immediately know the precise amount to be shouldered by PhilHealth. The system reduces out-of-pocket expenses as well as patient anxiety caused by lack of information," the DOH said in an annual report released in 2015.

Patients can also get medical assistance from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, which helps pay for hospital confinement, dialysis, cancer treatment and other medical procedures.

According to the DOH's latest annual report, released in 2015, the government spent P46.39 billion between 2010 and 2014 to repair and upgrade 47 DOH hospitals, 361 local government unit-run hospitals, 814 rural health units and 1,111 barangay health centers.

Efforts to upgrade hospitals run by the national government through public-private partnerships, though, have been met with opposition. Critics of the plan to upgrade the Philippine Orthopedic Center and National Kidney and Transplant Institute have said the PPPs will make healthcare too expensive since private firms will want to maximize the returns on their investments. — Jonathan de Santos, Patricia Lourdes Viray and Rosette Adel