EDITORIAL - The biggest employer, and growing

The worst crisis faced by the country since World War II has not stopped lawmakers from creating more opportunities to widen the taxpayer-funded trough.

With the government so cash-strapped in the pandemic response the next three generations of Filipinos are now buried in debt to multilateral agencies and foreign states, there is an unending effort to broaden membership in Congress – either through party-list organizations that represent no marginalized group, or through gerrymandering and the creation of more legislative seats.

The government is already the country’s biggest employer. Funds for salaries and the maintenance and operating expenses of thousands of government offices eat up a hefty chunk of the annual national budget, competing with allocations for urgent services such as public health and education. The state is so cash-strapped it cannot even afford a full rollout of the universal health care program.

Yet in the continuing pandemic, the Senate has just given its final nod to create new legislative districts in Caloocan City and the provinces of Bulacan and Maguindanao. The House of Representatives, for its part, passed a measure dividing Maguindanao into north and south, with each new province having its own congressional representation and bureaucracy, from the governor down to new barangay units and councils. Meanwhile, in Palawan, a plebiscite was held yesterday, asking residents for their opinion on whether the province should be broken up into three.

Whenever the country faces an intractable problem, the answer of the national leadership is to create a new executive department, with thousands of additions to an already bloated bureaucracy.

It wouldn’t be so bad if public service improves with the expansion of employment opportunities in government. Instead the new positions simply create opportunities for the relatives and allies of incumbent officials to be on taxpayers’ payroll, with all the perks and entitlements that go with public office in this country. Government positions are also used for political patronage, dispensed by those in power at the expense of taxpayers.

Once they are in government, it can be tough to weed out the lazy, incompetent, corrupt and undeserving of public trust. You’d think the worst public health crisis faced by the country in a century would at least suspend this job creation at the expense of Juan and Juana de la Cruz. This, unfortunately for the nation, is too much to ask of our officials.