Tangible Progress

There has always been a lot of cynicism among the folks in Lianga about the capability and, above all, the sincerity of the the national government to deliver on its promise, given so many times in the past, to address at the soonest possible time the urgent infrastructure needs of the local communities. At the top of the list, of course, is a modern road and highway system linking them to the rest of Mindanao and the nation.

Just over a year ago, I took a picture (with a cellphone camera) of a stretch of road just four kilometers southeast of Lianga that is part of the national highway linking Lianga to the municipality of Barobo and then on to the regional capital in Butuan City. It was at the height of the rainy season and the dirt road clearly shows the ravages of constant rain and recurrent flooding.

Two days ago I took another picture of the same stretch of road as it is actually now, at present, widened and bedecked in all of its paved and concreted glory. One can almost swear, unless one is in the know, that this clean, elevated and smooth ribbon of gray concrete is not the same narrow, muddy and gloomy dirt track depicted unflattering in the first picture.

This is the kind of government assistance the local people need the most, the kind that makes the greatest difference in their daily lives. It is the also the help and the beneficial change from their government that really means a lot to them because it is something hard and real, something tangible and visible and unlike the great mass of platitudes, political doublespeak and false promises they usually and regularly get from their great leaders from on high.
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Street Market

Fresh, still wriggling, scrumptious and exotic seafood. That is what Lianga, as a coastal town, has always been known for in this remote part of Mindanao.

Even nowadays when the local fish catch is dwindling due to overfishing and the persistent use of environmentally unsound fishing practices, the town is still a mecca for fish and seafood lovers from within and outside the Caraga region. Local beach resorts, for example, always make sure they have ample stocks of fresh fish, squid and lobsters for their out of town clientele.

Many outsiders, in fact, assert that the local sea fare tastes exquisitely different from the scientifically cultured and artificially fattened marine products of many of its neighboring coastal towns. This is a point, of course, all the local fishermen can agree upon and attest to wholeheartedly and enthusiastically.

Locals get their seafood supplies either from the public market, from ambulant vendors who peddle their goods through the neighborhood streets or from sidewalk markets like the one seen in the pictures. This particular street market is located in the northern edge of the town and right beside the national highway.

Shopping for seafood there can net you good bargains you can't get at the town market, that is if you don't mind checking out the food displays with vehicle traffic whizzing by and rushing past disconcertingly just a meter or so behind your back. But then, if you are a connoisseur of fine and fresh seafood that can be had at affordable prices then a little risk and inconvenience is, in this case, a small price to pay.
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Street Sports

Everywhere you go in Lianga it seems to be the trend nowadays. Street corners and side streets blocked off by nearby residents at certain times of the day and instantly converted to basketball and badminton courts. All it takes is a makeshift basketball hoop and backboard on a hastily erected wooden stand or crudely painted lines on the concrete pavement outlining the basic outlines of a badminton court and a droopy net hung like a clothesline across the street.

If you happen to be a motorist in a hurry, turning into a street and suddenly encountering one of these impromptu improvisations blocking your way can be an annoying if not frustrating experience. It usually means you have to back up for quite a distance and go around the next block to get to where you want to go.

Sometimes some of the more good-natured street athletes would obligingly let you get through by halting their game momentarily, lifting or dragging obstacles out of your way then blithely getting on with their games after the brief interruption but who would want to spoil things when it is crystal clear even to the casual observer that these amateur street sporting events are being played with the same intensity and dedication one sees in national badminton competitions or the storied courts of the Philippine Basketball Association.

And, of course, you in your killjoy of a vehicle will also have to contend with the usually raucous crowd of bystanders and sporting fans on the sidewalks eagerly watching the game and cheering for their favorites and who would not take too kindly to those who even inadvertently does anything to rudely interrupt the proceedings. I, for one, would rather meekly back off and go around the long way.

The proliferation of these impromptu sports facilities in Lianga has forced me to make certain elementary conclusions.

One, the love for sports and athletics is obviously alive and well in the people of Lianga and that, in itself, is something good. Nothing more effectively keeps the physically and mentally idle, especially the youth, from the seductive and deadly attraction of illegal drugs and crime than a healthy dose of competitive sports and active living. Sports promotes not only a healthy lifestyle for people of all ages but, as a collective activity, also promotes solidarity and community unity.

Two, there is obviously (and I mean OBVIOUSLY) a lack or dearth of usable sports infrastructure in the town. Municipal and barangay officials, despite their repeated promises to give priority to sports development in Lianga have actually done little in the way of fulfilling those commitments.

The municipal gymnasium which had supposedly been constructed precisely to provide a venue for sports activities is almost a kilometer away from the town center and, in the mindset of the local townfolk, if a destination is not some place near enough so you can easily walk to it then it is no place to go at all. Thus, the gym on the northern outskirts of the town is often a lonely, deserted shell of a building while the young people in town make do with playing sports on the streets.

On a similar note, there is no place in Lianga, at present, that can really be described, even generously, as a community playground for kids. The Lianga Women's Club in association with other civic groups put up several years ago a small playground just across the town park but despite their good intentions, it remains a small, seldom visited, dingy and ill-maintained facility nestled like an afterthought and located rather alarmingly near the public market and bus terminal.

The need, therefore, for an area withing the town proper equipped with a playground and sporting facilities where youngsters and adults can safely and conveniently go to have fun and sweat it out is something that the municipal government should be thinking about. That necessity happens to be a basic fact in town infrastructure planning.

Three, there is a need for the municipal government of Lianga to formulate a coherent policy regarding the use of streets and similar infrastructure as temporary venues for sports activities. There are, of course, the basic traffic and safety concerns and the last time I checked roads and streets are supposed to be for vehicles and the sidewalks for pedestrian traffic, aren't they?

At present, of course, a lot of the local folks see the use of some of their town streets as improvised badminton and basketball courts as a basically harmless and rather quaint use by town residents of what are essentially public property. This is, after all, Lianga and not Cebu City or Metro Manila. The locals have their way of looking at things and besides that, the markedly sedate vehicle traffic within the town proper cannot be compared to the frenetic madness that is normal in the cities.

But if such native ingenuity in the parallel uses of street corners and access roads remains unchecked and abused, the potential for future problems is clearly there. The need to prevent traffic accidents and to insure the proper and efficient use of the town access routes still remains an important duty for town authorities.

The time, therefore to put striving and would-be athletes off the streets and into the proper sport venues where they can really excel and shine safely and with the minimum of fuss and hassle to the community is here and now.
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Hospital Mess: Part 2

In a previous blog post, I reported on the details of cases of alleged financial misconduct committed by some officials of the Lianga District Hospital. The said fiscal anomalies are now the subject of separate official investigations by both the provincial government of Surigao del Sur which has direct authority over local district hospitals and the regional office of the Ombudsman in Davao City.

However, as a result of the formal investigations, Dr. Dionisio Tayko, LDH's erstwhile chief of hospital who has borne the brunt of the accusations of misappropriating hospital funds, has been relieved of his position and reassigned to Tandag, the provincial capital, pending the final outcome of the twin official inquiries. As to whether other currently serving hospital officials will follow in his footsteps remains to be seen at this point in time.

The unfortunate events at Lianga's local government hospital may seem to point out to the negative consequences to what can be considered the failure of local governments, particularly those at the provincial level, to exercise proper monitoring and supervision of the operations of government hospitals under their jurisdiction. There are, however, also many local observers who say that proper monitoring is not actually the problem but the "politicalization" of the rural health service in the provinces.

They say that the incident at the LDH would have been resolved earlier and prevented from blowing up into a scandal if local politicians have not interfered and muddied up the controversy for the purpose of protecting persons and personnel within the hospital with political links to them. The fact that the perpetrators of the supposed financial anomalies had been allowed to continue with their illicit work for some time already without being unmasked and punished by their superiors in the provincial government, they add, is ample proof of this.

When provincial governments assumed supervisory and funding responsibilities over district hospitals within their area in the early 1990's as a consequence of the passage of the Local Government Code of 1991, this devolution of responsibility from the national government to local government units was a traumatic process for many small government funded health institutions like the Lianga District Hospital. Like most tertiary level hospitals all over the country on the front lines of the rural health service, it was ill-prepared and inadequately positioned to cope with the increased demands for modern health services in their catchment areas while provincial governments like the one in Tandag were also struggling with financial and budgetary constraints.

To a large extent even today, the LDH, like most district hospitals in poverty stricken provinces like Surigao del Sur, is under-budgeted and forced to function with limited material and manpower resources. Rural folks desperate for hospital care are often forced to purchase medicines and hospital supplies which otherwise could have been provided for free or minimal cost under more ideal circumstances.

But what makes the situation worse is the fact that district hospitals have, to a great degree , become virtual pawns in the never ending political chess games local politicians play as they struggle to control the levers of power all over their political fiefdoms. Since local hospitals like the LDH provide essential medical care and a whole range of much needed health services to the local folk, it becomes strategically and tactically necessary for politicians in power to ensure that they have their own people inside controlling hospital operations. And for those with a more nefarious agenda, district hospitals can provide opportunities for outright graft or the occasional illegal diversion of government funds.

To prevent, therefore, the repetition of what has happened at LDH (something that obviously has happened a lot of times in many other government hospitals all over the country), it is imperative that not only must public pressure be put upon the provincial government to assume responsibility for better supervision and oversight over the operations of its district hospitals, but, more importantly, some mechanism or process must be created and implemented for the sole purpose of insulating local government hospitals from the negative effects of politics and political pressure.

One suggestion has been to amend existing laws and return direct control and funding of the district hospitals back to the national government. Whether that will work out under present circumstances and political realities remains a big question. And many local politicians in power would not take kindly to the removal of local hospitals from their spheres of influence.

But one thing is sure. The mess at the LDH may have been partially cleaned up for now but there is no assurance that that is the end of the matter. Unless something is done about the very realities and conditions that encourage and promote the abuse and misuse of government funds and facilities in government hospitals at the municipal and district levels, these same problems are bound to repeat themselves time and time again. And, as usual, it will be the poorest of the poor, those who desperately need urgent, low cost health care assistance the most, who will end up the worst for it.
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SOP

Mark, a frequent source of insightful comments to many of the posts to this blog, has just, in a comment to a recent blog post discussing alleged financial shenanigans at the local hospital here in Lianga, mentioned how corruption in government, whether local or national, has become institutionalized in what has been referred to simply as SOP.

Ordinarily, SOP (the acronym for Standard Operating Procedure and, as discussed here, has nothing to do with the popular GMA7 weekend noontime variety show on Philippine television ) is generally used to described standardized or universally accepted processes and steps in handling tasks and problems with the purpose of guaranteeing the best result possible under defined circumstances. In the case of corruption in government, it's meaning has become insidiously different.

When a Philippine congressmen or senator identifies a specific infrastructure project to be funded by funds from his pork barrel and receives in return from private contractors doing the project, an agreed amount of money as "kickback" or illegal commission, that is SOP. When an official of the national government uses his office or political influence to secure the release of funds for local government projects and "slices" off a percentage of the actual amount as a bribe, that is also SOP. And when a head of a government agency or department signs final approval of a purchase or acquisition of new equipment and receives a set portion of the total acquisition cost as commission, that also can be considered as SOP.

SOP also figures out in almost all government transactions and services. From applying for a government job or position to securing a business license or government certification, one can get what he wants or needs quickly and with the minimum of fuss and red tape if he avails of SOP. All that is required is to find out how much money is needed and who to give the money to.

In some government agencies and offices, SOP has become so institutionalized that for the ordinary man in the street to go there and not end up paying some sort of bribe or grease money in return for services that should be available to all taxpayers for free or at a nominal price has become more of the exception rather than the general rule.

As a consequence of SOP, bids and contract prices for infrastructure, services and goods submitted for consideration to government agencies are grossly overpriced and inflated to accommodate kickbacks. Bidding procedures for everything from office supplies and equipment to specialized services and labor for the government are almost always rigged to ensure that the whole corrupt system works flawlessly. Everyone in on the syndicate gets his cut of the pie.

This is what makes SOP so insidious. Every one involved in government corruption, even those who have to pay out the big bucks to grafters, believe that they all benefit from the illegal and immoral transactions. But the cost and the inevitable damage to the country and the ordinary taxpayer in terms of precious government resources lost and diverted to the pockets of criminals in public office and positions of trust cannot be underestimated.

Data from private and government sources tell us, for example, that in typical government infrastructure projects undertaken by the Department of Public Works and Highways, one of the government's most graft prone agencies, more than twenty percent to a third of the total funding often gets diverted to bribes and illegal kickbacks. The list of recipients and the percentage of the take for each of them is so standardized and institutionalized that those who are on the receiving end do not even have to ask for their share. They all get it eventually. Everything is indeed SOP.

The same situation is common in almost all levels of the government and local government units like the one in Lianga have not been free from this form of graft. Time and time again, the local town hall has been rocked by accusations that certain high municipal officials have approved infrastructure contracts or purchase orders for town equipment in return for a percentage of the contract or purchase price. And like elsewhere in the country, little has been done to finger the culprits and punish them.

Part of the answer why that is so can be found in the prevailing attitudes of ordinary citizens toward SOP in particular and government corruption in general.

A close friend of mine, in one heated discussion, vehemently declared, "There is no corruption if a government official does not ask for his share of the SOP and yet receives it as a matter of course. As long as he does not demand a kickback, anything he receives is merely his due." "Besides that," he added, "The money will merely go to someone else's pocket if one refuses to receive it."

I had marveled then at this creative redefinition of morality (or amorality) in the government service. No wonder most, if not the majority of Filipinos are all silent, complacent and willing partners in the vicious cycle of government corruption. Almost all are willing to turn a blind eye to what is obviously brazen theft of their precious tax money. And yet these are the same people who gasp in surprise and express indignation at government officials in the wake of news reports that the Philippine government is perceived by outsiders to be one of the most corrupt governments in this part of the world.

My argumentative friend, as usual, had the last word. "It is not corruption per se," he intoned. "It is merely SOP."
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