So who says Noynoy’s straight path, or even his no corruption, no poverty slogan is working, and more importantly, credible?
Who also says that the previous government was so corrupt and Noynoy’s spotlessly clean?
Well, the yellows, but as their own Commission on Audit (CoA) says, the Aquino government lost P101 billion to corruption last year.
Now, Noynoy and his boys can’t possibly lay the blame of government corruption on Gloria and her government, since the CoA report that was released recently says this was for the year 2011 — the year that Noynoy and his government were already in power and position since 2010.
A report, quoting the CoA, said government money was lost to 19 various forms of graft by which public funds are stolen, misused or mishandled.
The Audit Performance Summary Report for 2011 stated that P20.813 billion alone was lost to “under-assessment or under-collection.”
The report also said that state auditors found 157 cases of irregularities pertaining to under-assessment or under-collection where a government collecting agency failed to properly appraise revenue that is supposed to be paid to the government.
Add to that, the “profligacy or reckless spending” was the second biggest problem, posting a loss of P18.654 billion due to 1,642 cases of “unauthorized, irregular or unnecessary expenses.”
More: Questionable government supply contracts, including those carried out without the conduct of public biddings or do not comply with the Government Procurement Reform Act, resulted in losses amounting to P15.163 billion.
Some 692 contracts in 2011 fell under such category, the report stated.
Then comes the “fourth biggest problem” which covered some 104 “unutilized and/or ineffective projects” worth P13.584 billion, followed by unliquidated cash advances in the total amount of P7.534 billion in 1,003 different cases.
The so-called “unauthorized” or “irregular” expenses and contracts certainly get Noynoy’s political foes detained — on charges of plunder, such as the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) — a slew of officers and board members who have recently been arrested. Would Noynoy then order the arrest of his appointees whom the CoA report says are corrupt “unauthorized and irregular expenses, or will these be quickly dismissed by Noynoy, since these officers and officials are his allies, no matter the profligacy?
And will the Noynoy Ombudsman run after the Noynoy officials the way she does in the case of Gloria Arroyo and the PCSO officials?
Absolutely not. Noynoy and his allies are always given the special treatment, such as shielding them from investigations and prosecution.
Have any of the known allies of Noynoy ever been investigated, whether by the House, Congress, the Department of Justice through Noynoy’s attack dog, Leila de Lima, or even the Ombudsman?
To this day, their focus is on Gloria and other political foes of Noynoy, but has Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales gone after a big fish in the Noynoy administration?
It is certain that complaints against some high officials in the Noynoy administration have been submitted to Carpio-Morales, and yet one never hears about a big fish in Noynoy’s Malacañang being caught.
But back to Noynoy and his claimed straight path, which has definitely gone crooked — as can be gleaned from the CoA report.
How can Noynoy and his allies, with such straight faces, claim to be so clean and honest and incorruptible, when the CoA report shows otherwise?
How can Noynoy even claim before the public that the senatorial candidates he has picked for the 2013 polls have embraced the straight path and still be believed? But of course, he can always rely on the manipulated yellow surveys to make the numbers look good for him — especially when he needs them.
But the people know better. Besides, there are more poor Filipinos today, which, using his slogan of walang corrupt, walang mahirap, translates to a lot of corruption in his government, kaya maraming mahirap.
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