I remember what I read in the Reader’s Digest about a non-government organization (NGO) who helps indigent quadriplegics through providing them with free wheelchairs – wheelchairs that are adapted to rough terrain, enabling their beneficiaries to once again go outside and provide for their families.
At one point, one of their beneficiaries asked the NGO’s founder (who was also wheelchair-bound), “Can’t you just give us money?”
Here’s what that founder replied: “We don’t have any money to give you. But if we did give you a hundred dollars, what are you going to do if it runs out in a few months? Dependence is not the answer.”
-o0o-
I am reminded of this when I covered the payout of scholarship grants for students in a progressive city in Laguna province last month.
During the event, the incumbent executive (who ran – and won – for the city’s congressional spot), bared that his administration had spent hundreds of millions of pesos not just in scholarship funds but also in new school buildings and facilities.
Waste of money, his critics charged. And besides, infrastructure projects, as we all know here in the Philippines, aren’t popular with voters who prefer dole-outs and Pamaskong Handog packages every Christmas.
But that executive sees it another way.
Ang paliwanag niya: di tulad ng ayuda, ang mga scholarship at mga school building na itinayo sa lungsod niya ay itinuturing niyang isang investment na kalaunan ay babalik din sa lungsod. Paanong babalik sa lungsod? Yung mga estudyanteng nakinabang sa scholarships at sa mga magagandang school facilities, makakapagtapos ng pag-aaral, makakakuha ng magandang trabaho, makakatulong sa kanilang pamilya, makakapagtayo ng sarili nilang kabuhayan. Dagdag na trabaho + dagdag na kabuhayan = mas maraming kita para sa lungsod, sa pamamagitan ng mga buwis. Dagdag na kita = mas magagawa ng pamahalaang lokal ang tungkulin nito.
-o0o-
Iyon ang hindi nakikita ng mga botante na gusto lagi, ayuda, panandaliang tulong, Pamaskong Handog, blah blah blah. (Yung iba nga, nagagalit pa kay Mayor kapag kulang ang Pamaskong Handog o hindi sila nabigyan ng local pension.)
Wala na silang pakialam kung butas ang bubong ng silid-aralan, wala nang pakialam kung baku-bako ang kalsada, wala nang pakialam kung hindi maayos ang pamamalakad sa munisipyo, wala nang pakialam kung halatang drug lord si Mayor. Basta, may ibinibigay siya sa amin, tapos! Wala na kaming gagawin, tutunganga na lang, makikipag-tsismisan na lang sa kapitbahay, uubusin ang ayuda sa alak at sugal.
I do not deny that “ayuda” programs have enabled the poorest of the poor to uplift their lives. But the way I see it, traditional politicians have “spoiled” the voters with doleouts that they have become the very epitome of Juan Tamad, the person who just lies down below a guava tree and waits for fruit to fall down his month.
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