Taking up the cudgels for local government units (LGUs), Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto reminded Malacañang Wednesday that LGUs are “well-trained” in delivering aid to their constituents year round.
Recto recalled that big cities like Manila have the “boots on the ground and the muscle memory” to carry out large scale distribution of aid, whether in cash or in-kind, “complex operations which understaffed national agencies may find hard to do on their own.”
The Senate President Pro Tempore affirmed in a news statement that “the best is still a Bayanihan between the local and national governments.”
Recto found it “irrational for the central government” to nationalize an activity, which is best done with local government participation.
He affirmed that local governments have warm bodies and the command structure needed to bring aid to as many people as quickly as possible.
“Those big cities and provinces have division size personnel,” added Recto, ruing that “they will be replaced with a platoon of clueless people who don’t know the terrain.”
Recto reminded that City Hall people are more familiar with all the corners of their localities, including “eskinitas compared to central office bureaucrats.”
He said the national government actually saves time and money in “pasa loading work to local governments.”
Maintaining the national government-local government partnership, Recto pointed out, “saves the national government from embarrassment if the job it has assumed to do on its own will end up a flop.”
Recto recalled that “in this current case of Manila, baka sa Malacañang pumila ang mga tao kung may aberya sa pagbibigay ng ayuda.”
At the same time, the senator added that “the biggest disaster, is that aid that the people should be receiving during the no-work quarantine will be delayed.”
For instance, he noted “the City of Manila has been delivering almost a million boxes of food to homes of their residents for some months. Hindi naman air dropped ito. May organization, may method. Tapos papalitan?”
Recto recalled that Manila, in “bilis-kilos fashion” built a 344-bed field hospital in seven weeks, “and I do not know of a comparable feat done by DOH [Department of Health].”
He also pointed out that Manila “was able to build condominiums for the poor in the middle of the pandemic.”
“Mayroon bang ganoong klaseng direct shelter production ang national government na pwedeng ipagmayabang?” he asked, adding, “If Manila was able to pull off these big-ticket projects, then distributing aid to its own people is just another day in the office for them.”