REORDERING PRIORITIES

By Jose Alejandrino
2017

It is time to reorder our priorities by reducing drastically the budgets of non-performing agencies and bodies of the government. In case of politicized commissions like the CHR which prefers to defend the rights of criminals over their victims and only serve as platforms to criticize unjustly the president, the decision by the House of Representatives to reduce its budget to one thousand pesos is the correct one. The CHR was not created to be a political instrument.

Agencies and bodies that do not perform are a complete waste of taxpayers money. That money can be put to better use in improving the lives of the poorer segments of our society, like subsidizing school tuitions of deserving students with no means to finance their education, like raising the salaries of teachers, soldiers and police, like providing free medicine and healthcare for indigents, like rehabilitating drug addicts.

We are a poor country with many poor people. Because of widespread poverty, the poor turn to drugs. Because of low pay, government employees resort to corruption. Only rich countries can afford the luxury of wasting money. Our country can't.

Social programs to alleviate the plight of the poor and to raise salaries of lowly-paid government employees are popular and will receive the full support of the people. By drastically reducing the budgets of non-performing agencies and politicized bodies, funds can be freed towards more worthy and popular causes.

Politicians who prefer to waste public money should be exposed in the social media and booted out of office. They have no business being public servants.