Addicted

This is what ails our political system.

- ALEX MAGNO

Despite all the posturing about producing a budget free from corruption, the bicameral conference committee, at the insistence of congressmen, allowed billions to be allocated for the Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP). This is one of four programs described as “soft” pork and designed to build the reservoir of debts of gratitude to politicians.

Under MAIFIP, billions in taxpayer money are funneled to help indigent patients survive our astronomical medical costs. To access the funding, however, needy patients need to secure “guarantee letters” from politicians. It is an indignity imposed on the poor. Although the funding covers only a fraction of total health care expenses, the poor are made to grovel before the powerful.

There are more efficient ways of funding health care without the involvement of politicians. The entire amount for MAIFIP could, for instance, be deposited with PhilHealth. But all these more efficient ways will deny powerbrokers a role in administering taxpayer money.

Notwithstanding the vigilance of volunteer groups standing guard over the budget process, the MAIFIP could not be stopped. It represents something fundamental in the way we understand politics.

For generations, politicians bought political support using state resources. Until limited by public outcry over the scandalousness of it all, it used to be routine for politicians to advertise themselves in billboards claiming ownership of public works projects. Every local executive maintains a fund for helping the poor cope with their emergencies — dispensing public funds like it was their own. “Madaling lapitan,” after all, is a major voter consideration in choosing who will govern them.