Robredo, lawmakers urge gov’t execs to drop politics of ‘ayuda’
ISKO’S CORNER: Cash aid distribution to tide the poor over during the lockdown proceeds as scheduled in Manila on Wednesday, with residents lining up at Parola Compound in the city’s Tondo district, even with Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno’’ Domagoso lately finding himself in President Rodrigo Duterte’s crosshairs. (Photo by RICHARD A. REYES / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo and a number of lawmakers on Wednesday called for a stop to political brawling while the country is dealing with the health crisis brought by COVID-19 and its highly transmissible Delta variant.
Reacting to President Rodrigo Duterte’s Monday-night tirade against a mayor he would not name but is widely believed to be Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso, the lawmakers decried Duterte’s delegation to certain agencies the distribution of “ayuda” (cash aid) to the mayor’s constituents.
Robredo called on government officials to “set aside political leanings” and channel their energies from “jibes and snides” toward more productive endeavors that would avert the continuing rise in COVID infections.
Boots on the ground
Since the pandemic began, the Office of the Vice President, in collaboration with private-sector partners and ordinary Filipinos, had been engaged in such activities as the teleconsultation platform Bayanihan E-Konsulta and Vaccine Express.
“We should be all-in in addressing this crisis,” Robredo said. “All eyes on the surge.”
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said that unless the government wanted people queuing at the Malacañang gates for cash aid, the job of large-scale distribution of financial assistance should be left to big cities like Manila.
Recto said it did not make sense to deny Domagoso the authority to undertake such “complex operations which understaffed national agencies may find hard to do on their own.”
Manila and other large, wealthy cities have “the boots on the ground and the muscle memory” for cash aid distribution, Recto said in a statement.
He said it would be irrational for the central government to “nationalize an activity” that was best done with the participation of local government units (LGUs).
“The City of Manila has been delivering almost a million boxes of food to the homes of residents for some months. These weren’t air-dropped. They had an organization, they had a method. Now we will replace them?” Recto said.
He also pointed out that the Manila government was able to build a 344-bed field hospital in seven weeks, “and I do not know of a comparable feat done by the DOH (Department of Health).”
Mayor absent
The distribution of cash aid to low-income families in Manila pushed through on Wednesday despite Domagoso’s absence.
The mayor was nursing a bad cold and cough early in the day, according to Manila Social Welfare head Asunción Fugoso. But he was apparently well enough to visit a hospital construction site later.
Fugoso said the city government had not received any directive to step aside, and thus proceeded with the cash distribution that is expected to last for the next two weeks.
In a payout site at Jose Abad Santos High School, Secretary Rolando Bautista of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and Gen. Kit Teofilo, Department of Defense (DND) commander for the National Capital Region, were present to observe the distribution.
Manila Social Welfare under the city government is “the overall in-charge” of implementing health protocols and security, Bautista told reporters at the site. “As a whole, they’re in charge of ensuring a peaceful, systematic distribution,” he said.
Fugoso said the P1.4-billion allocation from the central government was intended for over 380,000 poor residents affected by the Aug. 6-20 lockdown.
After avoiding reporters’ questions all day on Wednesday, Domagoso appeared in the evening and said the cash distribution would go on as scheduled.
“Thank you, President Duterte, and the DSWD, DILG, and DND” was all he would say.
‘Harassment’
Sen. Risa Hontiveros said the Duterte administration was harassing LGUs whose officials are perceived to be its political enemies.
She said this act of politicking was not helping bring aid to families gravely affected by the latest enhanced community quarantine.
Malacañang should “stop undermining the autonomy of LGUs,” Hontiveros said in a statement.
“This administration should snap out of the illusion that [its] politicking is helping. How can the country’s leader who is touted as ‘best communicator’ now lead in harassing a local government unit?” she said.
On Monday night, Duterte said: “There is one city that I will not give the power to distribute the aid. In so many instances, they cannot organize. It has happened several times and several times [the mayor] has blamed people other than himself.”
The president did not name the city or the mayor, but he is believed to have been referring to Domagoso, who was earlier blamed for the “chaos” at certain vaccination hubs that were swarmed by people from near and far. Domagoso is rumored to be planning a run for higher office in 2022.
But Malaya denied that Manila was being singled out. He said his and the other officials’ presence at the payout site was intended to ensure “an orderly distribution.”
“We are doing that in all [LGUs],” he said.
But Hontiveros said: “How can Malacañang have the temerity to pass around a blind item amid a rotten and confusing pandemic response that emanated from them? This is one question that is not difficult to answer because we all know who is being uncouth in this scenario.”
She said LGUs were the “lifesavers” in the government’s pandemic response.
Political threat
The six-member Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives said Duterte was resorting to “malicious” attacks on Domagoso because he saw the latter as a political threat.
“It is disgraceful that the president resorted to personal attacks against Mayor Isko, not because the [LGU] chief has failed in his work, but because he is perceived by the President as a threat to … a Duterte Dynasty by 2022,” the progressive lawmakers said in a joint statement.
They added: “Interior Secretary Eduardo Año should probably remind his boss that on June 30, 2021, the [DILG] awarded the City of Manila a certificate of recognition for ‘efficient and timely’ distribution of financial aid.”
