The P500 Noche Buena challenge

For quite a while, there has been so much hullaballoo, even reaching the level of a national debate, on spending P500 for a Noche Buena meal. The furor was triggered by price estimates on how much a simple Christmas dinner, which we call Noche Buena, will cost a typical Filipino family. The study was done by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) before the onset of Christmas.

As announced by DTI Secretary Cristina Roque, P500 worth of basic Noche Buena fare is good enough for a sharing of food for a family of four – father, mother and two children. Roque cited this was based on the DTI price guide for Noche Buena items released last month where the indicated ingredients had price rollbacks.

However, the DTI price guide for Noche Buena received bitter criticisms. Riding on the back of public outrage on the multibillion pesos lost to corruption in flood control projects, politicians scored the Marcos government for “imposing” such P500 Noche Buena. But it is not an imposition, contrary to the political heckling.

Worse, some even decried as denigrating to the low-income Filipino families being dictated upon to be satisfied with just P500 for Noche Buena. Notably, House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio described it as “insulting and infuriating” for every working Filipino family. “Go buy these stuff at DTI,” one heckler tweeted.

Undaunted by the public backlash the DTI generated by the price guides, Roque presented to the press the possible Noche Buena fare that can actually be bought with a P500 budget. In fact, Roque cited, the DTI price guide gives “options” available for a basic food fare on the table on Christmas Eve.

These products included a 500-gram American-style ham from a local brand costing P170 – lower compared to its previous market price of P174, and a 500-gram sweet-style spaghetti sauce now costing P48.50 compared to its previous market price of P52. DTI’s price guide also noted items like 200 grams of elbow macaroni can cost as low as P24 while 250 grams of pasta can be as low as P30.

The same DTI price guide showed the Noche Buena can have cheese for pasta at P56.50 and mayonnaise at P55 for macaroni salad. With a P500 budget, she added to the Noche Buena fruit salad for dessert: a can of fruit cocktail at P61.75 and all-purpose cream at P36.50.

It will add up to a total of P499.20, with change of 80 centavos to boot.

This brings to mind a conversation a few weeks ago with newly appointed Department of Finance “acting” Secretary Frederick Go when this P500 Noche Buena generated hot public debates amid the reported misuse of flood control projects in the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). Go drew parallelism of family budgeting with how he intends to ensure the proper use of scarce resources in the government’s annual budget.

Like Filipino families, Go vows to follow and maintain the mantra that the government must live within the budget. “For example, if the budget is set at P2,000 a month, the family expenditure must not go beyond P1,999.99,” Go pointed out.

If followed strictly, he pointed out, there will be no need for the family to resort to borrowing or charging expenses to credit cards. Applying the same principle to government operations, Go went on to say the country will be able to gradually reduce deficit spending. “Then more money could be allocated to needy sectors, assuming minimal or no leaks in public funds due to corruption, inefficiencies and all others things being equal,” Go explained,

Himself a father, Go tells us he practices the same principle in his family. Before he was recruited to join the Marcos Cabinet in January last year, Go was chairman, vice chairman, president, chief executive officer and/or director of six listed companies and several corporations in various industries including media, retail, real estate, food, banking, finance, airline, airport, petrochemicals and power over a span of 35 years.

Go was first tapped as PBBM’s Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs (OSAPIEA) where he ensured the effective integration, coordination and implementation of the administration’s investment and economic policies and programs. In this capacity, Go also headed the Economic Development Committee (EDCom), supervising and monitoring developments in key government agencies.

Go took over from finance secretary Ralph Recto, who PBBM promoted to become his new Executive Secretary last Nov. 17. As finance secretary, Go is the immediate head of the two major income-generating agencies, namely the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC). Like the DPWH, both the BIR and the BOC are among the identified agencies as being most prone to graft and corruption. Thus, revenue leakages from these twin evils cannot just be swept under the rug.

One such source of corrupt activities got former BIR commissioner Romeo Lumagui into trouble and he got sacked for it. The Senate Blue Ribbon committee started yesterday the investigation into an alleged money-making racket of “weaponizing” letters of authority (LOA) and mission orders at the BIR. LOAs are BIR documents authorizing them to look into a taxpayer’s records to determine any tax liabilities. According to the modus, the taxpayer settles the alleged deficiency but the BIR personnel receive a commission of up to 70 percent.

PBBM named Charlito Martin Mendoza to replace Lumagui at the helm of the BIR last Nov. 13. Go subsequently suspended for now the issuance of LOAs and mission orders.

As a further housekeeping measure, Go recommended to the President to abolish the OSAPIEA. For more than a year, Go ran the OSAPIEA at the barest minimum given and used up only P4 million out of the P12-million annual budget. In his exit report, Go returned the unused budget to the national treasury.

That’s better than the P500 Noche Buena challenge.