ON DOING AWAY WITH BUREAUCRATISM

I have been wanting to write about bureaucratism for a long time because I think it is a very big reason why this planet is a-shambles despite the many well-meaning persons around. Here are some examples:

1. I wrote a proposal for a cultural event. It took several months before the response came. By the time it did, the deadline for submitting a revised proposal and for a different department had lapsed. 

2. I complained to the highest court of the land about the skyway being built near our subdivision. The reply came many months after and the skyway company  had already erected the posts where the bridges will be placed. The reason for rejection of my complaint, for one I did not pay the proper docket fees. If we are correcting a misdeed of the government should we pay up at all? We are doing our civic duty to point out that that skyway will bring meaningless results to our people and yet the DPWH still continued with it. 

4. Everyday, or almost everyday, I hear that PAGCOR is distributing its funds to buy school desks and chairs in the various regions. How come the Education Secretary has not rejected that at all? Maybe he thinks it does not fall within his list of tasks. But the act of PAGCOR is disastrous in the long run. For one, it brings in the idea that "charity" is good but since it is a gambling institution, then it is instilling in the minds of the students that to gamble is okay. Is that not an unhealthy thought? Gambling brings about a breakdown of family relationships and could cut down a person's ability to function well in the family and in society. It is as insidious as alcoholism and smoking. 

Yet not one has raised a horror about PAGCOR's act because it shares the manna to almost everyone. Now why "bite the hand that feeds you?"

5. The DENR was found by the COA to have underplanted trees from one billion + it was only able to achieve a 20% result. Why should the COA always come late with its assessment, and why not in the middle of the project? Again that is a case of bureaucratism. 

6. This is the same case with the DSWD which had a lot of donations in cash and kind not being spent or distributed to the needy victims of disaster.  The COA report came late, after millions have been lost due to negligence. 

The bureaucracy has a lot of problems. Maybe we need a task force to study how it can be curbed or how we can do away with it altogether in order to make public service truly meaningful, speedy and relevant. 

When public service becomes so, then we could expect a lot of happy, healthy people, I surmise.