IT’S THE MONEY: I used to have beside me in the car saging lakatan that I would hand out to beggars knocking on my window at intersections thinking that they beg primarily to be able to buy food. Many times, however, they would refuse the bananas.

My policemen friends explain to me when I relate to them this odd behavior that food is farthest from the minds of these panhandlers who, I am told, are mostly fielded by syndicates. What they want, as part of this organized mendicancy, is money. Cash.

When I was covering City Hall decades ago, I came upon a social welfare study showing that some beggars in such busy areas as Quiapo collected each day more than the one-day salary of the mayor of Manila.

One beggar who was shadowed by researchers was found to go to the Quiapo church vicinity in her own car. She would park some blocks away, change clothes, then amble to her assigned sidewalk where she had become part of the scenery.

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RICH, BUT POOR: These points come to mind when I see media reports on the calamities that periodically visit us to restore the environmental balance that we have disturbed — and also to remind us that we are part of an active ecosystem governed by immutable laws.

We break Nature’s rules and we are punished in proportion to the gravity of our violation. We cry, we whine, but seldom do we bother to reflect on the root of our tragedy.

Actually, we Filipinos are blessed. We are not that poor. We just do not know how to use our God-given talents and the still-plentiful resources around us in this beautiful country.

Having taken for granted and abused the abundance around us, we have become callous. We refuse to learn our lessons. We commit the same mistakes again and again, compounding our plight with man-made disasters.

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CASH DOLES: Amid the devastation, we see a chance for us to put public funds into more productive use now.

Instead of doling out billions upon billions – IN CASH! — to the statistical poor, the Aquino administration can use the money to help calamity victims repair their dwellings now, revive their disrupted livelihood now, restore their farms and livestock now, and thus become productive.

Instead of soliciting donations and material assistance for calamity victims, the administration can tap the P22 billion or so it has set aside for doling out under a CCT or conditional cash transfer program copied from a foreign model.

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USE, NOT GIVE IT AWAY: We are not saying that the government should GIVE or dole out the billions to calamity victims. We are saying USE the money. And use it NOW!

Jobless Filipinos in the devastated areas can be employed – using CCT billions – in repairing damaged infrastructure and dwellings and rendering emergency services. They work with dignity.

Let us not wait to dole out the money in the uncertain future. Gamitin na ngayon (hindi ko sinabing ibigay). Nowna! Now that it is urgently needed.

There are numerous private individuals and groups busy ministering to the victims in the flooded areas. The least that the government can do is match their earnest effort and their material assistance now, not at some calculated future time toward the elections.

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GOODBYE TO CASH: We disagree with the idea of doling out cash aid to the poor and entrusting the distribution to politicians.

Experience has taught us that if we distribute cash, the money would just vanish till the next doleout date.

Many deprived Filipinos, long neglected, think the government owes them a living.

Having seen how officials pocket public funds and how cronies corner behest loans and run away with it, some borrowers of state institutions feel no compulsion to pay back loans in full and on time.

For similar reasons, many beneficiaries of government mass housing projects are not in a hurry to pay their monthly dues.

Seeing no opportunities in the provinces, the unemployed flock to the cities and squat on empty lots in total disregard of the law. When being forced out, they demand a relocation site, a job and some payment.

Kasi po, they think the government owes them a living.

Do we now bolster that thinking, that mendicant attitude, by doling out cash?

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HELPING STUDENTS: We are told that there is a mechanism for ensuring compliance with the conditions imposed on recipients of CCT doles. For instance, in return for receiving cash, beneficiaries have to make their children go to school.

This point raises the fact that the Constitution mandates the government to provide FREE and COMPULSORY primary education. We do not have to bribe parents to send their children to school. We compel them!

I remember that in my hometown in the old days, when a kid was seen in the street during class hours, he was accosted and asked why he was not in school. His parents had to explain his being truant. Why can’t we go back to this?

Some parents of modern-day kids in depressed areas reason out that they have no money for jeepney or tricycle fare and baon for recess. (Don’t look now, but some of them may have cellphones! Or they have forgotten that they have legs for walking.)

Why does not the government use the CCT billions now to provide free snacks, pencil and paper, books, and other basic learning aids? This is more productive than giving money to the parents and checking later if they looked after their kids’ basic education.