Bleeding hearts for the poor but…

More than a year after appointing them into office at the Presidential Commission on the Urban Poor (PCUP), President Rodrigo Duterte found “poor” the performance of its five commissioners. True to his earlier announcement “to fire” an entire commission, President Duterte lowered last week the boom against PCUP chairman Terry Ridon and his four commissioners, namely, Melissa Aradanas, Joan Lagunda, Manuel Serra Jr., and Noe Indonto.

Gracefully exiting from his PCUP post, Ridon thanked President Duterte for the “opportunity to serve the nation,” adding that the commission had performed its mandate “with integrity and confidence” despite the “heavy burden of undertaking genuine reform.” Ridon, however, justified his foreign travels as part of doing his job as PCUP chief in relaying to the international community what the Duterte administration has so far done to alleviate the plight of the poor in the Philippines.

President Duterte apparently was un-impressed and ignored his protestation. The Chief Executive stood by his decision to fire them all, including Aradanas despite the latter being a cousin of presidential partner Honeylet Avanceña.

Prior to his stint as PCUP chief, Ridon served as party-list representative of the left-leaning Ang Kabataan during the 16th Congress. Ridon is one the alleged communist card-bearing member identified by Sen.Antonio Trillanes IV who has scored President Duterte for appointing known communist leaders to key government positions.

Ridon’s firing from the PCUP followed the collapse of peace talks with communist rebels and President Duterte’s Proclamation that declared the New People’s Army (NPA) as a terrorist organization. The NPA is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

The CPP was founded on December 26, 1968 by former professor Jose Ma. “JoMa” Sison. The NPA was founded in the following year. The CPP-NPA has engaged in peace talks with the Philippine government – through the National Democratic Front (NDF) – from one administration to the next.

On Sept. 22, 1992, former President Fidel Ramos signed a law that legalized the CPP which had been outlawed until Congress approved the repeal of the 1957 anti-subversion law – Republic Act (RA) 1700 that declared the party an illegal organization and prohibiting membership in it. Then President Ramos signed RA 7636 as a goodwill gesture to encourage the CPP-NPA-NDF to return to the peace negotiations with the Philippine government. Ramos’ term ended in June,1998 without seeing any formal peace pact with the communist groups.

When he took office at Malacañang last year, President Duterte resumed the stalled peace talks with the CPP-NPA-NDF leaders conducted here and, mostly, abroad. Like the previous administrations, the peace talks with the CPP-NPA-NDF were off-and-on. President Duterte suspended the peace talks in the past due to the continuing attacks by the NPA rebels against government forces as well as criminal and extortion activities upon the civilian population.

The last straw came when the NPA killed a policeman along with his wife and baby. It prompted President Duterte to abandon the peace negotiations and declared the NPA as terrorist organization.

But Malacañang brushed aside insinuations that Ridon’s association with the Left caused his job at the PCUP. Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. disclosed on Tuesday President Duterte decided “to fire” all the PCUP top officials because they failed to meet as a collegial body and had been making “unnecessary junkets.” Roque described the President’s action as a very clear warning to the rest of the bureaucracy to shape up. “This kind of work performance has no place in the Duterte administration,” Roque pointed out.

Initially, Roque announced the President would “abolish” the entire PCUP. However, hours later he corrected this and clarified the President merely intends “to fire” the commission’s top officials.

Methinks abolishing the PCUP is the more wise move than just removing the five commissioners.

The Office of the President itself is an oversized bureaucracy. It needs streamlining. The various attached agencies and offices under the Office of the President – like the PCUP – have multiplied through the years from one administration into another. It really calls for downsizing for effective management of all the minor offices directly under the President.

The PCUP was created by virtue of Executive Order (EO) No. 82 on December 8,1986 by the late former President Corazon Aquino. The PCUP serves as the direct link of the urban poor to the government in policy formulation and program implementation addressed to their needs.

As far as methinks, the PCUP has certainly outlived its usefulness and relevance. In fact, the PCUP is a redundant agency. Anyway, the President has existing institutionalized system dedicated to help and address the needs of the poor families all over the country.

In fact, the President chairs this institution called the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), with another left-leaning activist, former Gabriela party list representative Liza Maza as lead convenor of its secretariat.

The NAPC was created by RA 8425, otherwise known as the “Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act.” Under RA 8425, which took effect on June 30, 1998, the government’s Social Reform Agenda (SRA) enjoins NAPC to strengthen and invigorate the partnerships between the national government and the basic sectors under institutional agencies of the government.

Over the weekend, President Duterte reportedly mentioned the names of pushcart educator and CNN hero of the year 2009 awardee Efren Peñaflorida  as well as school teacher Randy Halasan, a 2014 Ramon Magsaysay (RM) Awardee for Emergent Leadership as both qualified and fit to become new commissioners for the PCUP.

Obviously, abolishing the PCUP is not on the table of President Duterte. So we will continue having officials with bleeding hearts for the poor but many Filipino families will remain wallowing in poverty.