Taxpayers, paying two billion daily for government salaries

The Philippine Star reported last Sunday that taxpayers in this country are shelling out more than two billion pesos every day including weekends for salaries of public officials and personnel in the national agencies. This huge amount does not include the salaries and wages of employees and workers in the provincial, municipal, and barangay officials that are also shouldered by the taxpayers, but are not reflected nor included in the national budget. This also does not include the compensation and huge benefits to those in government-owned and controlled corporations and government financial institutions.

The report also specified that this amount does not include the handsome allowances, bonuses, and perks granted to the same government officials and personnel. The exact amount is a gargantuan 810.5 billion pesos for 1.2 billion government officials and employees. The amount is divided by 365 days, which will yield a total of 2.2 billion every single day of the year, including Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. Those people who are supposed to serve us are being paid even when they are on rest days, on leave or in vacation. Therefore, we have the right to ask: Are we getting the two billion worth of services from government?

When we go to the BIR office to pay taxes, we are asked to line up under the heat of the sun or even when it is drizzling, showering or raining. The personnel are not in a hurry, some are just talking to each other, reading some things or using their laptops, ipads, or cell phones, unmindful of the long lines and the people they are paid to serve. When we go to get NBI, court, or prosecutors' clearances, even barangay and police clearances, the same long lines and under the same heat and rains, and serviced inefficiently, uncaringly and mindlessly by inept, lazy, and discourteous personnel.

Lest we are misunderstood, I worked for 20 years in government. And there are thousands of good, even excellent, courteous, very accommodating officials and personnel. But these angels are few and constitute the small minority. These few good men and women do not know that right in their own turfs, their bureaucracies and agencies, there are too many little "Indians" who behave like  "imperial" tyrants as if they own the place. These ''cruel'' people must be told that their salaries constitute one third of President Aquino's proposed budget for 2016 to the tune of more than three trillion pesos. They must remember that they are a burden to the overtaxed Filipinos.

Whilst salaries for national agencies official and personnel have a staggering cost of 810.5 billion, which is a whopping 27 % of the total budget, infrastructures have only 645.4 billion or 21.5 %, the budget for the bureaucracies' MOOE or for maintenance and operations have 534.6 billion or 17.8%. The national budget gives all the local government units a total of 464.5 billion which is 15.5% of the national budget. Taxpayers also allocate 419.3 billion as interest payments for our foreign and domestic debts, and that is 14% of the budget. We, the poor middlemen are paying for the debts of Marcos, Cory Aquino, FVR, Erap, GMA, and the Tuwad Na Daan.

Government corporations also get 127.1 billion. So, the taxpayers also pay the salaries of employees of the Land Bank, DBP, Philhealth, PAG-IBIG, SSS, GSIS, and the hundreds of other white elephants in the government, where politicians' families and lovers are enjoying handsome pay packages. Whenever we get services from government, we have paid for them, like SSS and Philhealth. We pay taxes and we paid already our medical benefits. And yet, when we transact business with some petty tyrants in the government counters, we are treated as if we are beggars, pleading for alms. Is this the Daang Natuwad?