Reorganizing the organization

After watching the changing of the Speaker of the House of Representatives (HOR), I was reminded of the fact that Congress has too much power, an ever growing list of legislative “priorities” and too little time given their term limits which is why they accomplish so little for so many a membership.

When I say “too much power,” not many people realize that Congress has “the power over the purse” for anything that government wants but would require funding. Congress does not merely write and pass actual laws per se, they also write accompanying laws that will provide money for organizations or projects passed into law. In addition to this, only Congress can “correct itself.” So if Congress passed a law that is now obsolete, or created an agency, institution etc., that now requires expansion or modernization, only Congress can amend or legislate the original law.

Only Congress has the power to create courts all over the Philippines, not the Supreme Court, not the Court Administrator who manages all courts and judges all over the Philippines and who knows when and where they need to create a court. Only Congress has that power along with the power to name or rename streets, as well as cemeteries if I am not mistaken and a lot more.

If a government agency such as the LTO has an Extension Office aside from the “Agency” in the area, and that Extension Office has expanded through the years and has reached the same status as the main agency, the Assistant Secretary for the LTO Ed Galvante cannot simply write a memo to the effect. He or his assigned staff will have to make representations to the Congressman or Congresswoman of the district that covers the LTO Extension Office. To fast track that, the concerned agency would have to get someone to write a “draft bill” before sending it to their representative. But even that is no guarantee because time and again nothing happens because Congress has other priorities!

Take for example the problem of the Philippine National Police and the quality of their police recruits. Time and again the PNP has taken flak for the number of new police officers (PO-1) who end up getting kicked out of the service for character or criminal issues. There has been a long debate that the Philippine National Police Academy or PNPA should be handed over by the Philippine Public Safety College to the PNP so the recruitment and curriculum, as well as training can be done by active PNP officers. This apparently needs an “Act of Congress” but Congress especially Congressmen who were once officers of the PNP have not been focused on the matter and failed to lobby or push for the change. So far the feeling is Ex-Cops don’t necessarily transform into good representatives for the PNP.

Even economic managers have complained and have been pushing for a serious reorganization of “Investment bodies” in the country. Apparently there are several different agencies such as the Board of Investments (BOI), Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) and a couple more who have varying degrees of authority to grant incentives to companies investing in the Philippines. No less than NEDA Director General Ernesto Pernia expressed an opinion that all these “investment authorities” should be merged into one. But if any of the many authorities exists by virtue of a law or an “Act of Congress” then someone will have to nag Congress to pass a law.

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We recently invited officials from the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission and I quickly discovered why rehabilitation of the Pasig River has been slower than the water lilies that float upon its banks. The PRRC is the equivalent of a “Paper Tiger” and nothing more than a glorified coordinator that does not even have any power to referee the conflicting interests of various departments. The officials certainly try to do their best but they can’t do much since they exist based on an Executive Order and they sing and dance based on the level of interest or priority of the sitting President.

If we are ever to see the Pasig River become a major transportation, tourism and commercial “avenue,” we need an act of Congress to create The Pasig River Development Authority that would give it more powers than an agency such as the MMDA. Because of people’s small mindedness, they fail to realize that the Pasig River has major revenue and people-mobility potential. In most major cities around the world, rivers like the Pasig are used for transporting people and cargo using modern transport and not dilapidated barges or tug boats converted to “Ferries-kuno.” The waterway is kept clean and clear and dredged regularly so that mobility is not hampered. Real estate property along or beside the river should be kept under government ownership and can eventually generate billions of pesos in future rentals.

For those of us who loved or appreciated the Pasig River ferry of before, word is that several departments who currently have a say on the matter are forming or have formed a consortium to own and operate the Pasig River Ferry. I hope the officials involved UNDERSTAND that at the start, the ferry system has to and must be subsidized or categorized as a “Public service” meaning the consortium should not judge the Ferry system’s success based on profit margins or pesos and cents. The Ferry should be a public service and the necessary first step and investment to showing policy makers, legislators and the public that the Pasig river is a viable alternative. Government service should not always be self-sustaining as the DBM would want. We need to put our money where our mouth is to convince others to do likewise.

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