THE last six years have been very challenging for scouting, boy scouting.
Why for six years? It was during this time when P - Noy was the country's Chief Scout. A uniform was presented to him but apparently he never took interest in scouting. He returned his uniform just recently, it was still placed and packed the very same way it was when given him six years ago. Maybe it didn't fit him.
Not only was P-Noy not interested in scouting, he also sent out his henchmen to find a way to destroy it. He must not have wanted his Vice President who was heading it. Still, it was very unfortunate for all of Boy Scouts in the Philippines to be affected from all this. How boyish.
For those who see nothing going on or going wrong, here is the story.
Apparently the Boy Scouts have been declared as a Government Owned and Controlled Corporation (GOCC). How could that even be? Scouting in the country has always been a part of every family. We all went through Boy or Girl Scouts at one point in time.
I have never seen the hand of government on how it was run, much more spending for it. Never too has government supported or at least placed a form of budget or money in it. Mom and Dad did. They paid for me and my siblings to go and be registered scouts until we went off to college. They purchased uniforms for us and paid for our jamborettes and jamborees.
Today I am still a scout. I still pay for my own to attend functions of scouting whether here or abroad. I regularly attend meetings at my own expense. I purchase my own a patch. During meetings, we are only given coffee and some simple snack. Many others from Mindanao and the Visayas do too. I just pay for gas and toll gate for my vehicle, still an easy P3,000 at least. Theirs would be worse. A plane ticket even budget flights to say the least would still be costly for Juan.
We leave shaking hands with one another and biding every Juan a safe journey back. Not a single peso is reimbursed for this. I remember when I was still in government, and when I attended government functions I was reimbursed with my expenses. That was because there was a budget and a reason for my attendance. I was also paid for doing a job. In scouting, we are all volunteers.
Today what I cannot understand is how such a decision can be made towards a body that never had any support from government for any subsidy or a simple budget be considered, government? Even staff were paid out of monies that were collected from membership.
A defense prepared today should have answered with finality what the status of scouting is. In Congress, the body was asked, "does the Boy Scouts have a budget, if so how much?" None of course. So how then can we be a GOCC when we don't get any money from government. Simple logic.
A government corporation receives a budget from national government to be able to perform their duties. How do you think was the Boy Scout able to perform its duties ever since? Simple, it never depended on government. So it still makes me wonder how and when were we established to be government.
For the worst part, we are being audited by the Commission on Audit. How the hell can we answer for something that does not come from government funds? The same, COA for their part as ordered by their "bosses" are relegated to making an audit based on nothing.
Scouting has its own charter just like the Red Cross. The Red Cross is not a government owned and controlled corporation. Surely, COA doesn't want to dip their fingers in their affairs.
I am vice president of the Boy Scouts for Luzon. I worked my way up from heading Baguio then becoming a Co-opted member representing Media then Education and eventually becoming the Regional head for Regions CAR and II. I am recipient to the second highest award given in scouting which is the Silver Tamaraw.
It pains me to tell every Juan how it is today. Uniforms for the kids are now on hold as bidding has to be conducted since we are considered government. I will recall how frustrating it was for an office to purchase ink for the printer or a busted light bulb. The bidding process just takes too long.
Staff are now removed and retrenched for not meeting professional regulations even on the minimum. What would Juan expect from them, they are just loyal servants to scouting, not corporate people. Volunteers. The minimum requirement for a street sweeper in government is, high school graduate. Really? For President of the Republic, must know how to read and write! Really!
But even for the rest in hierarchy, they will be paid like government corporation executives every month. Of course! Because we are declared a government corporation. Just like SSS or GSIS, they should be receiving the same. Say P200,000 a month for a vice president? What! I am the vice president. Yahoo I will be receiving at least P200k! But wait, who will pay me? All the boys in scouting? Not the Government. It should, as it was government that declared scouting to be government under their control and as a corporation.
It just seems so funny and so petty, oh so boyish.
As of this writing once more, I will be heading down to Manila, well MalacaƱang, to confer the Chief Scout to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. I wish for better things for scouting unlike that of the former Chief Scout who did nothing and made things even worse without realizing how it would affect all the families with children in scouting.
And to the new Chief Scout I pray for you and your good judgment on what scouting really is and should be. Let not scouting become government or even be interfering in scouting as it was created to be independent, an organization where true leaders are born and trained and with morals and values.
Scouting is the school of life, not a school for business, and definitely not government.