Last Monday, Sept, 29, I was one of four speakers in the Opening Plenary of the ’12th Monitoring and Evaluation Network Forum’ organized by the Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DEPDev) held at Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria. The previous name was NEDA, renamed and restructured under RA 12145 or the ‘Economy, Planning and Development Act of 2025.’
DEPDev Secretary Arsenio Balisacan gave the opening remarks and he emphasized the important role of monitoring and evaluation (M and E) to see whether government projects, programs and commitments are met or not, whether resources are used wisely or not, whether the people really benefited from those programs or not.
My co-speakers in the opening plenary panel with the theme, ‘To retain, redesign or retrench?’ were DEPDev Undersecretary Joseph Capuno, DBM director Mary Joy de Leon and ADB principal economist Ashish Narain. I represented the perspective of civil society as the president of Minimal Government Thinkers advocating less government, less taxes. Moderator was UP School of Economics (UPSE) Prof. Karl Jandoc. Big crowd in the grand ballroom, participants mostly from different government agencies, national and regional offices.
After asking the three co-speakers, Karl asked my view as an advocate of minimal government about DEPDev’s mandate to use evaluation results. I replied that DEPDev as the main M and E agency of the Executive branch (Section 4 of RA 12145) should remind all other agencies of two principles.
One, the Principle of Subsidiarity – functions that can be done by local governments should not be assigned to national government, and functions that can be done by civil society or voluntary organizations and individuals themselves should not be assigned to government, national or local.
Two, reason for existence or ‘raison d’etre’ of government – to protect the people’s right to life, right to private property and right to liberty. This is actually contained in the 1987 Constitution, ‘Section 5. The maintenance of peace and order, the protection of life, liberty and property.’
I emphasized those two principles because modern governments now, Philippines and almost all other countries around the world have expanded to many areas and sectors that were not ‘rights’ and entitlements before. Like free education up to universities, free health care for certain sectors including non-communicable diseases, free monthly cash and so on.
These functions are formerly personal and parental responsibility and not government responsibility. Now it is becoming the reverse, and that is how governments have expanded, the bureaucracies, regulations and prohibitions have expanded. The annual disbursements, the budget deficit, borrowings, taxes and regulatory fees have expanded. And the wastes, inefficiencies and corruption have expanded.
High annual budget deficit means high annual borrowings and hence, rising public debt stock. Our interest payment of our public debt in 2024 was P763 billion or an average of P2.1 billion a day. For 2025, interest payments targeted by the DBCC early this year amount to P848 billion or average of P2.3 billion a day. But as of January-August 2025, it was already P584 billion or average of P2.8 billion a day. At this rate we will pay up to P1 trillion for interest payment alone, principal amortization not included yet. We are almost drowning not just with flood but with costly debt.
Another question by Karl to me was what institutional and capacity gaps hinder effective use of M and E evidence at national and local levels. I replied that the institutional gap is the prevalence of the philosophy of anti-inequality or forced equality in social outcome, instead of equality before the law. We lack the rule of law, the law applies equally to unequal people, no one is exempted and no one can grant an exemption. Like the law against stealing, if we exempt the very poor from punishment, many people will stop working and declare themselves as poor and steal left and right knowing they will not go to jail.
For now, I think DEPDev should consider telling these agencies as part of its M and E function of the Executive branch.
One, the State Universities and Colleges – stop expanding campuses. There are 113 SUCs and 126 local univs and colleges like University of Makati, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila. Cebu Technical University has 24 campuses, Palawan State University has 19, Cavite Batangas, Southern Luzon (Quezon) State Universities have 11 each.
Two, the Department of Health – privatize two of their four hospitals in Manila City, get the money and put up a DOH hospital in regions where there is none. Manila City has seven city-owned hospitals, has UP-PGH (P7 billion a year from UP budget), and four DOH hospitals. Does it mean residents of Manila are the healthiest people in the country? Not exactly.
Three, the Department of Energy – when the share of (solar + wind)/total power generation reaches 10 percent, even 15 percent, stop contracting new solar and wind via Green Energy Auction to avoid rising inflation. Threshold seems to be 20 percent, beyond that inflation rate is higher than a decade ago, the case of many European countries.
Four, the military and uniformed personnel (MUP) agencies – AFP, PNP, PCG, BFP, BJMP, etc. They should pay for their own pension someday when they retire, and not take it from taxpayers. The MUP pension in the budget is P111 billion in 2024, P132 billion in 2025 and P133 billion in 2026.
I doubt that Finance Secretary Ralph Recto and Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman are happy finding more revenues yearly to cover more budget requests by many agencies and keeping the deficit as low as possible.
The reason for the existence of the government is to protect the people’s right to life, right to private property, right to liberty. Not to burden the people with endless taxes and corrupt their values with endless subsidies and freebies.