THE Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (Courage) opposed Wednesday the possible deactivation of some state agencies and corporations in a bid to streamline government spending.
In a phone interview, Courage President Ferdinand Gaite said there will be thousands of regular employees who would be affected in the plan of the Palace to axe some government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs).
"It would be counter-productive as this will also lead to increase in unemployment, especially for thousands of government employees," said Gaite.
He added that shutting down these GOCCs would totally remove the already "meager" services they provide to the public.
"It simply diminishes the already inadequate social services being delivered to the public for food, housing, and agriculture, among others, that these GOCCs provide," said Gaite.
In his presentation of the proposed 2011 budget last Monday, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad disclosed that the government is already studying the possibility of deactivating some GOCCs.
Leading the list are Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corp. (Quedancor) and the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC) as the two agencies are already "suffering from irrelevance, unfulfilled mandates, political interference, improper targeting, and poor implementation of program designs".
Quedancor is mandated to accelerate the flow of credit resources to the countryside while PCIC insures farmers against losses arising from natural calamities, plant diseases, and pest infestations.
Instead of closing them down, the labor leader said, it would be better if the Aquino administration would just undertake a massive re-organization of the concerned GOCCs they deem as already being irrelevant.
"Baka mali lang ang 'corporate' orientation na ginawa sa mga GOCCs na ito kaya hindi sila dapat i-abolish at sana i-retain na lang," said Gaite. (AMN/Sunnex)