Wednesday, September 01, 2004 Editorials: Will to sacrifice
Amid all this talk of a fiscal crisis and the need to reduce budget deficit, government leaders--from President Arroyo to Congress leaders--still have to show resolute will to sacrifice and overcome the problem.
So far, we have seen and heard either hemming and hawing about their position or stout and loud defending of their demand to keep the perks they've been getting.
Consider:
– The President has a much more huge discretionary fund but she doesn't wish it decreased. Her defenders say she can't effectively run the Government during an emergency without disposable billions of pesos.
– Congress, especially the House members, say they agreed to a 40 percent cut. The public soon realizes, however, that there is no cut at all, only a shifting of funds legislators control for projects of their choice.
– Local officials insist on untampered internal revenue allotments (IRA) for them to govern well, arguing any other way would be political suicide.
– The 2005 national budget itself has appropriation items people had expected not to see, but are still there, even bigger than the previous allocations. Slices of the pie have grown for vehicles and gas, representation, advertising, and the like.
– They promise downsizing and making bureaucracy "lean and mean" and yet layers are added to bureaucracy and more debts of government-owned corporations are booked as state liabilities.
No genuine concern for community and country? Maybe, it's just inertia. After years of the easy and free ride paid by tax money, getting off is tough.
To be sure, government appeals for austerity sound hollow and flat if leaders behave as if it's business as usual.
They want us to tighten our belts while they loosen theirs to allow for increasing fat from excessive consumption.
Scene of crime
Keeping the scene of a crime unsullied is crucial to investigating the crime and catching the criminal.
The police crime scene unit Soco can be improved with high-tech equipment and professional training. Members of the unit must not only be taught the basics, they must learn passion to preserve the crime scene and ferret out vital clues.
Perhaps Cebu City Hall can expand its interests beyond teaching cops to gun down the suspect. The suspect could be innocent and the criminal could get away because of shoddy crime-scene work.
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