GARCIA IS COLLECTIVELY PUNISHING PENSIONERS

The failed eCard program that Winston Garcia is implementing with no regard for its bad consequence amounts to nothing but collective punishment. And the aggrieved party in this case is the elderly and mostly ailing government pensioners.

In order to prevent scammers from continuing to collect the pension checks of dead relatives, he has embarked on the eCard program that is intended to stop the fradulent practice.

And we have no quarrel with that, except that the new technology that he promotes is not working. Let's admit for the sake of argument that the ailing pension system was fraught with loopholes that scammers could exploit, but what's incredible is that the cure that Garcia has prescribed for the disease is worse than the symptoms.

The result, of course, is total chaos and disaster. The pensioners have stopped getting their pension for months, and some press reports indicate that there are cases of those not receiving theirs for up to a year.

Being a lawyer, Garcia should know that collectively punishing a group of people for some rotten apples in their midst is against the grain of civilized society. Only the Nazis and some incorrigible dictators in history have done that, like Joseph Stalin, a former Catholic seminarian like Garcia.

For collectively punishing the pensioners in pursuit of his twisted dream to supposedly catapult the Philippines atop the "IT totem pole" is immoral.

When you put pensioners' welfare at risk in a unilateral manner, as Garcia has done in this case, you cross the line. No one has the right to tinker with the elderly's life in any way, shape or form. They have served their country loyally and well and they deserve nothing but the best service that the government can offer in their twilight years.

And, by the way, it's not true that only the Philipines, as he claims, is using some sort of eCard. The U.S. Food Stamps program has been using this system for years. But the huge difference is that their card works. Beneficiaries show up at the Welfare office, are given the card in no time, and start using it seamlessly on their next visit to the supermarket.

The operative word here is seamless, none of the hassles and aggravation that Garcia's foolhardy project has created. And none of his lame excuses either.

IT'S TIME FOR GARCIA TO GO!