BABES IN THE WOODS

Philippine Daily Inquirer
Editorial: BABES IN THE WOODS
August 5, 2010

TO HIS impressive resumé, Public Works Secretary Rogelio "Babes" Singson can now add an unfortunate and unenviable distinction: He is the first Aquino Cabinet member to be directly accused of illegal conduct. Unnamed sources in the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System have accused him of pushing a "midnight deal," while he was still chief executive of Maynilad Water, with the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. when it was under close Arroyo administration ally Ephraim Genuino.

As it turns out, the accusations don't hold much water. The deal was begun in February 2009, a full year before the 2010 campaign period started and the alleged opportunity cost for the national government is an estimate based on a controversial legal interpretation. Singson himself, on the instructions of President Aquino, conducted a news conference where he explained himself on every single accusation. This is not to say the matter is already a closed book, but what a refreshing change from secretive officials of the previous dispensation!

It is not hard to divine the motives of the MWSS sources, or indeed of other Singson critics who have started to surface. In the first month of the Aquino administration, Singson has emerged as the President's unlikely point man against corruption.

Mr. Aquino himself hinted at this, when he praised Singson twice in his first State of the Nation Address, for uncovering or stopping consummated or continuing irregularities.

This is, any observer of Philippine politics must admit, a most unusual circumstance. Survey after survey has shown that, in public perception, the Department of Public Works and Highways ranks as one of the three most corrupt government agencies. With a budget (this fiscal year) of P126 billion, it is easy to see why.

To be sure, anti-corruption initiatives in the DPWH have been tried before. There is even a resident ombudsman. But by both formal and informal accounts, "leakages" (the euphemism for public funds lost through corruption) continue to stain the department's reputation.

Now comes a public works secretary who apparently believes in the President's campaign promise to fight corruption, and means what he says. Thus, we are treated to a news conference where Singson taunts his own resident ombudsman, who, he says, may have been pretending to sleep while many crimes were taking place under his nose.

We are encouraged by a government official taking on the very vested interests that populate his department: the influential contractors themselves. Singson told ABS-CBN that he had found at least 19 anomalous contracts. "Nineteen negotiated contracts were entered into [on] June 18. These were concluded, negotiated, [the DPWH] identified who were the contractors, and signed off. Yet the SARO [Special Allotment Release Order], the allotment release by the Department of Budget and Management, was only issued June 25. So the contracts were signed even before the letter of authority was released."

We are tantalized by the sight of a Cabinet secretary taking the battle right into his own territory, so to speak. Singson mused aloud that the authority that district engineers
and regional directors enjoyed may have been one of the causes of the many anomalies. He also said that he expects to reassign or relieve maybe a third of all his department employees. "I've made a proposal. Not all will be reshuffled, some should no longer be appointed."

Not least, we are heartened by the example of a public officer who returns public funds to the national treasury, to the tune of P17 billion, because "we don't really need it."

The amount is not exactly loose change; as Singson himself described it, the total was equivalent to the budget of the Department of Transportation and Communication. Beyond the value of the excess funds in absolute terms, the return of the money demonstrates Singson's overriding belief that more can be done by the DPWH (better quality bridges, roads that actually connect farm to market, and so on) with less money.

We realize it is still too early to tell whether Singson's daring experiment in fearless, no-nonsense public service will actually work, but we know he deserves the public's open support.