2028 money tap opens

2028 money tap opens | Daily Tribune

Officials entrusted with distributing billions of pesos at the barangay level have, through an act of Congress signed with uncommon haste, been relieved of the obligation to seek a fresh mandate from the very voters who installed them.

The added sweetener is that barangay and SK officials will get five years more after their November 2028 elections under Republic Act (RA) 12326. Pay obeisance and preserve your seat for another five years, or seven years in total on top of the extra two years.

The Palace explanation for signing the law postponing the elections scheduled in November is that programs already underway might reach completion without the disruption that a change in leadership would occasion, an excuse that, if expanded into the bigger realm, might trigger frightening scenarios.

Following Malacañang’s logic, the officials whose continuity is protected are the same ones who, over the two years that follow, will preside over the distribution of a fund that has grown by nearly 150 percent.

Watchdogs are also wary of the eighth postponement of barangay elections in recent memory, which they said suggests a pattern of institutional habit.

An LGSF component called the Growth Equity Fund provides a fixed allocation of P3.9 million to each qualifying barangay, disbursed not to an office but to whoever occupies it, which is to say that the two additional years RA 12326 grants to sitting chairpersons are more time to hold the funds, an incentive for somebody who will likely seek reelection in November 2028, six months after the presidential race.

The red flag is that the executive branch distributes the LGSF at its discretion, and that its growth invites patronage before the crucial vote. Those who control local disbursement of an unprecedented sum will do so without the intervening check that a scheduled election would have provided if the schedule in November had been followed.

Maintaining patronage is expensive. The national debt, which reached P19.39 trillion as of the end of July, piled up during the Marcos administration mainly through ayuda, or cash subsidy, distributions.

Every peso of crumbs thrown to the public is mortgaged against a future the current administration will not repay.

The Marcos administration’s Medium-Term Fiscal Program projects fiscal deficits of P1.69 trillion in 2027 and P1.72 trillion in 2028, meaning roughly P3.41 trillion more could be added to a debt stock already at a historic high.

The accumulation is occurring, moreover, as economic growth has slowed for four consecutive quarters, raising questions about how comfortably the economy can carry an ever-expanding debt burden.

A government that continues borrowing on such a scale while funding projects ahead of the pivotal 2028 elections risks leaving future administrations and taxpayers to shoulder the cost of today’s spending.

Those making the borrowing decisions will not be the ones left to pay its full legacy.