Thread by @prinzmagtulis

THE FAULTY AID COORDINATION SYSTEM (This will be long):

Interesting to see how Duterte gov’t tries to consolidate medical aid, donations received for COVID-19 response through Office of Civil Defense. The same thing was done during Yolanda via Foreign Aid Transparency Hub.

But unlike FAiTH, Duterte’s aid consolidation efforts deal with physical donations, not money, which can actually spell the difference between a successful humanitarian aid coordination effort and those that fail.

Under FAiTH during Yolanda, agencies like DSWD and OCD were also not told to be “transmitted” to one agency. At the time, agencies can continue to receive aid and use them accordingly, while only reporting to FAiTH as a transparency measure.

In case of foreign aid received directly by DFA, they get transmitted to line agencies like DSWD and agencies were free to use them as they deem fit. If each agency then can direct where funds will be used, what’s the point of FAiTH then. It’s transparency.

You see, FAiTH is a website managed by DBM and DFA then, which was regularly updated to reflect money received from various donors. The website is still up today, but for some reason, links do not work anymore. FAiTH is not supposed to replace current mechanisms for spending aid.

FAiTH is an added bureaucratic layer, yes, but only as far as transparency dictated.

Of course, the initiative was not perfect and encountered problems. Former DBM chief Florencio Abad said the idea was to institutionalize FAiTH as a humanitarian aid monitoring system, a good plan actually given the propensity of disasters, reconstruction we undertake every year.

It bears noting that aid money is public money. It may not form part of official budget, but the amount Philippines receives each year from aid may have the power dictate the results of any recovery efforts.

This is what is lacking in the current COVID-19 outbreak, which is arguably bigger than any calamity response. Duterte’s order to centralize medical donations were framed badly so much so that it creates another layer of bureaucratic red tape— not as a measure of accountability.

In fact, there was no mention of that or “transparency” in the order.

So far, gov’t has moved to centralized everything on this outbreak response, a misguided move that only increases the size of the government, making it unable to function efficiently as it should be. Local governments should be trusted to do their job.

Line agencies should deliver without micromanagement from the central government. That will help get things done faster.

Unfortunately, I think the micromanaging is also partly Duterte’s fault.

By appointing people with little to no expertise in key agencies, he is forced to double-check on them every now then to make sure job is being done, which in turn can make or break his political legacy. That, or this is just all being politicized now.