By Alejandro Del Rosario
There’s a new equation to the “kaklase (classmate), kaibigan (friend), kabarilan (shooting buddy) President Benigno S. Aquino III became known for when choosing appointees to his Cabinet and other government agencies.
The three Ks took on added meaning with another K—for “katiwalian (corruption). Sadly, the President started on the right foot with his “kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap” election campaign battle cry which gained traction with voters.
Aquino must not forget how easily political fortunes can turn. He should draw a lesson from his two immediate predecessors. One was convicted for plunder and but was able to reinvent himself with the help of his masa constituency. The other, awaiting trial for the same crime, is under hospitable detention due to failing health.
While presently riding the crest of popularity in opinion polls, Aquino could find the fall from grace can be slow and steady like soil erosion. Or sudden. Political capital can be wiped out by a scandal of tectonic magnitude.
Some of his friends and allies have taken the President’s “daang matuwid “(straight and narrow path) to twists and turns on the road. Their crooked ways, so far have not tainted Aquino himself. But they have piqued the President as he vented out in his State of the Nation Address.
While he singled out corruption in two bureaus—Customs and Immigration—the President left out other agencies of government the public knows are just as corrupt. The President’s Sona also took to task the incompetence of the National Irrigation Administration and cast aspersion on the integrity of the police.
Left out of his Sona list were the Land Transportation Office, headed by a province mate and shooting buddy; the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the Department of Transportation and Communications which has been linked to a $30-million extortion attempt on a Czech company bidding for a contract to supply and upgrade equipment for the Metro Rail Transport.
This is a list in progress and more names will be added as events begin to unfold and witnesses start to come out.
The LTO has earned the public ire for the long delay in the issuance of vehicle license plates (while waiting for the right supplier?) The LTFRB, on the other hand, has indiscriminately granted bus franchises (because there’s money in it) more than Metro Manila’s roads can bear. This has added to the horrendous traffic problem.
The DENR’s lax enforcement of environmental laws and questionable granting of mining and land fill permits is raising a lot of stink. The DENR can be praised for imposing on Philex Mines Corporation a P1.3 billion fine for spilling mine tailings into a river from its Padcal operations in Benguet. Lately, however, the DENR has been sleeping on the job while illegal operations extract ore, nickel and black sand for shipment to China. These minerals are components in the manufacture of weapons that China can use against us in its aggressive moves in the South China Sea. This is being done with the complicity of Filipino dummies and local government officials in Zambales, Pangasinan, and the Ilocos provinces.
This is treason of the highest order which needs looking into by the Department of Justice, the Department of the Interior and Local Government aside from DENR.
The biggest story these days is the scam pulled by businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles who used a network of non-existent non-government organizations to siphon off some P10 billion in Priority Development Assistance Funds, more commonly known as pork barrel. Six opposition senators have been named as having ploughed pork barrel allocations to the Napoles NGO network but more names, including those of Aquino allies, are coming out.
Like the swine flu spreading the contagion of corruption, the pork barrel virus has reached a member of the Aquino Cabinet. Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala has been accused of funneling P90 million of congressmen’s pork barrel funds into Napoles’ bogus NGOs.
Another administration ally, according to a source, sought the help of House Speaker Sonny Belmonte to arrange a meeting with a top official of the Commission on Audit who is looking into how the ranking congressman allocated his pork barrel. It seems he directly identified the projects where his PDAF would go over the years which amounted to a whopping P400 million.
Without a dummy NGO to point to, his disbursements have attracted the COA’s attention. How did that story end? The last we heard, the congressman and the COA official had been meeting one-on-one; there was no more third party present in the meeting.
Another mind-blowing expose would be is for someone to come out with evidence of malfeasance on billions of pesos being doled out as Conditional Cash Transfers by Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman. Questions of accountability in the distribution of money meant for the poorest of the poor are being asked.
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