Ayuda Blues

Ayuda Blues

"Namimili naman kayo!" (You're playing favorites on purpose!)

So goes the tired familiar refrain whenever we at local government release news of an ayuda 'payout' activity.

(Ayuda, from the Spanish 'aid,' means 'government assistance' or 'doleout.')

This is a sort of kneejerk reaction that raise my hackles despite the unusual amount of patience I exercise from the thankless task of dealing with trolls and bashers of every mold from day to day. That's because it is a blatant accusation, a case of malice aforethought. The comment just smacks of premeditated cheating on our part, or on the part of my colleagues.

I moments like this, when we are openly accused falsely and without shame too, despite an act of kindness, I remind myself that I experience the wound of Jesus Christ, no less. After all, who was originally the one accused of being a criminal despite him being all good and being God? This unfortunate position, they say, is a moment of grace, a chance to exercise Christian forgiveness by stretching one's patience thin and extending compassion, kindness, and understanding even to those who don't deserve it.

I understand all these, thankfully, but I am the first one to ask God to spare me if possible because I know I am far from being a saint when it comes to being offended, especially in cases where I work hard, strive to do good, and end up being accused of something evil that I did not do. I know I should be an expert at it or a veteran of being victimized by false witness by now; after all, because of my station in life, I have long been accustomed to people presuming to know my identity and lifestyle choices better than I know myself. But in times like this, my ego is always, as that vulgar term nowadays puts it, "butthurt."

Another strategy I employ is placing myself in the commenter's shoes. Good thing I know a bit of psychology and am able to understand where people might be coming from. If I find myself truly offended and lacking a desire to forgive, I just remind myself of the many repeated mistakes I made in life that I asked God forgiveness for. Try it -- it's very effective!

Long story short, comments like "Namimili naman kayo!" sets me off badly, and I often end up going beyond the bounds of my job description by going on a CI (credit investigation) mode like some vigilant bank official. I ask the concerned department head point blank how the names of beneficiaries are selected, then I search the Citizen's Charter for the standard process of availment, if there is any, and do a quick backup Google search for the standard process nationwide.

What I learned is that it is impossible to sum up the process into a one-size-fits-all or rule of thumb because it depends upon the type of ayuda or benefit being applied for, the most well-known of which are as follows:

4Ps: Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (under DSWD)
TUPAD: Tulong Panghanapbuhay para sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced workers (DOLE)
AKAP: Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program (DSWD)
AICS: Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (DSWD)
MAIP: Medical Assistance to Indigents Program (DSWD)
SPES: Special Program for Employment of Students (DOLE)
GIP: Government Internship Program (GIP)
Expanded Centenarians Act cash gifts
assorted scholarships
senior citizen pension
various farmer's inputs
etc.

(Note that TUPAD, SPES, and GIP are not exactly pure ayuda but cash-for-work types, while 4Ps is highly conditional, i.e., it comes with a set of specific conditions.)
Things also depend on where the assistance is being applied for, since there are several levels of government we are dealing with: national, regional, provincial, city/municipal, barangay.

Limiting this gripe of mine to ayudas accessed through the municipal level, I found that each type of assistance has IRRs or implementing rules and regulations as basis -- guidelines in other words. And of course, as bureaucracy anywhere goes, it means that applying for anything comes with a host of requirements and paper works. As I see it, to put another way, it is hard to 'game' the system.

I also learned that government agencies from various levels base their selections on who actually applied for qualification, or from validated lists already in existence, and they tend to exchange such lists for quick reference.

And yes, good thing there is such a thing as validation process, precisely to weed out unqualified applicants. Also, government agencies in central offices often have a centralized list of qualified beneficiaries who have availed of what kind of ayudas in the past, and use these databases to determine redundant or repeat availments or beneficiaries.

The most crucial part in the selection process, I noticed, lies in the barangays. Why? Because it's the barangay people who have actual personal knowledge of the applicants. This means that a great deal of the process is based on the trust placed in the barangay officials' or barangay workers' vetting power. Barangay people can easily politicize ayuda-giving, if they so will it.

It is possible that, if not for paper-based evidence, officials and employees at higher levels would have a degree of difficulty determining whether an applicant is truly the right target beneficiary or not, unless he or she is a fellow resident in the same barangay, where neighborhoods roughly know the names of each other's pet dogs and what the family just had for lunch.

Now, what makes things further difficult for those wanting to take a piece of the ayuda pie is the harsh reality that government funds are limited. They often can't cover for everyone who claims to be needy. So it appears that we people on the ground end up routinely dealing with this scenario of so many constituents competing for extremely limited slots.

At this point, I am at a loss for words, except to say that maybe government should have a massive information campaign on this topic and do something so people won't end up saying, "Sana all!" and yes, the irate and all-knowing, "Namimili naman kayo eh!" It's not good being perpetually being accused of playing favorites or cheating those who should benefit the most from stop-gap measures to address material deprivation.

According to studies, "anything that involves targeted assistance worldwide will have a maximum 10% leakage," so it shouldn't surprise us to find any town following this trend to be no different. But in a perverse way, I admire those who can get away with it despite all those means of control! But I'd like to think that, in my town, we are different, with good governance measures firmly in place.

As for the wisdom of this emergent culture of dole-outs, reportedly patterned after socialist Latin American models of wealth redistribution through conditional cash transfer schemes, this government insider will leave the commentary to media people.