Governance crisis

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teddyboy Locsin posted this cryptic post on Twitter last week:

“That said, my thanks just the same to US Sec of State Mike Pompeo we – Babe Romualdez and I – got 10 million doses of Pfizer financed by the World Bank and ADB to be shipped through FEDEX to Clark in January. BUT SOMEBODY DROPPED THE BALL. I have steel ball bearings. I just need a slingshot.”

It was not surprising to learn who dropped the ball… the same guy who has been mismanaging our COVID-19 response.

Remember how Duterte blamed the rich countries for our inability to get our hands on approved COVID-19 vaccines? We all know the real reason is someone in his Cabinet failed to make timely reservations.

So Duterte named General Galvez as the vaccine czar… the point man for anything that has to do with the COVID vaccine. But it looks like the poor general will be made to take the blame for someone else’s failures to act.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said that it was Health Secretary Francisco Duque III who bungled the deal to buy 10 million doses of vaccine from American drugmaker Pfizer.

Lacson said the government would have secured the delivery of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine as early as January if not for Duque’s “indifference,” after he “failed to work on the necessary documentary requirement.”

Duque, however, insisted “There is no such thing as ‘dropping of the ball.’ The negotiations are ongoing,” the health secretary said. He admitted though that it took him three weeks to sign the Pfizer standard non-disclosure document after receiving the green light from Malacañang.

Hmm… he is saying he didn’t drop the ball, but dribbled it. Just as bad in our emergency situation.

Indeed, Ambassador Babes Romualdez told CNN Philippines the vaccines were “pushed back to a later date of delivery possibly June next year because we did (not) act quick enough on the CDA (Confidential Disclosure Agreement). Other countries got ahead of us like Singapore.”

It looks like there is a preference for the Chinese vaccine which doesn’t have the kind of transparent scientific scrutiny that the Western vaccines have. Par for the course. Our officials never cared for our health anyway.

We have under-invested in health through the years. We don’t have the right health infrastructure, which explains why we were unable to properly respond to the pandemic.

My colleague Tony Lopez, editor and publisher of Business News Asia, commented in the Viber group of Tuesday Club that “today, if you have kids in public schools…chances are they won’t get their required inoculation from DPT and measles.

“According to World Bank data graphed by the Wall Street Journal on Dec. 13, the Philippines is one of the worst performers in the world in terms of vaccine rollout.  Bangladesh, a much poorer country, achieved 100 percent in DPT3 and 90 percent in measles. In contrast, the Philippines achieved 12 percent in DPT3, and two percent in measles.

“DPT3 (1949) and measles (1963) vaccines have been around for decades. They are easy to administer and do not require the sub-zero temperatures of the COVID-19 vaccines.

“Yet, the government inoculates only one of every eight kids for DPT and only one of every 50 for measles.  With this dismal vaccine performance, how can you expect the government to properly, efficiently and promptly vaccinate 70 million Filipinos against COVID?”

Bad governance has brought our country down to the pits.

The other area of concern raised by Tony is agriculture. Before William Dar became the secretary, the Philippines had an average growth in agricultural output of 0.2 percent per year, in the last 20 years. The population is growing at 1.8 percent per year or almost two million babies a year.

Tony observed: “We need to import two million tons of rice a year.

“The Philippine archipelago has double the coastline of the United States, meaning we have plenty of seafood.  But we are protein-deficient.  We import seafood, we import pork, we import canned fish and meat products of all kinds. With food short, malnutrition and hunger creep in.

“A hungry or malnourished child has stunted brain development.  Which means large-scale stupidity. No wonder the Philippines consistently ranks last in international competitions among students in math, science, and reading.

“Ironically, according to World Bank data, Filipinos have an average or mean schooling of 9.4 years, longer than the 7.7 years of Thais; eight of Indonesians; and 8.2 of the Vietnamese, but shorter than the mean years of schooling of Malaysians, 10.2 years…

“This could mean Filipinos don’t learn much while in school… With a stunted brain and malnourished body, life becomes short…”

Our officials claim they are fixing this governance crisis by creating new departments. Things just get worse. With more people in government, less of the important things get done.

New departments create more jobs in the bureaucracy, which politicians fill up with their supporters. We are spending more and more on salaries and upkeep of officials… less on things we really need like infrastructure.

Duterte just told Congress to create a new department for OFWs. Does this mean that we are resigned to having Pinoys work abroad because we gave up on our economy’s ability to create enough jobs for them?

Look at the new department of housing. What has it done? Marawi residents have been waiting for their promised housing for three years now.

There is also a proposal to create a department for typhoons, floods and earthquakes named disaster management and resiliency. There is still another proposal for a department on water.

Soon the Malacanang ceremonial hall will be too small to host a Cabinet meeting.

Yet, Duterte keeps on creating task forces for every problem that gets his attention. DOJ is supposedly going after crooks in government in a special task force. Isn’t this the job of the Ombudsman? If the Ombudsman is ineffective, that’s Duterte’s fault because he appointed him.

Our government is being run like hell all these years. Even Quezon will be shocked.

So here we are. We most certainly deserve better.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco