Wednesday, April 18, 2007 Nalzaro: White paper on ABC By Bobby Nalzaro Saksi
A WHITE paper, which presumably has reached the news desks of various news organizations, is being circulated around alleging that irregularities and immoral acts are being committed at the office of the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) of Cebu City.
I would have ignored the white paper’s content because I considered its issuance as an act of cowardice. Also, it came from unknown sources. But when I read it, I found some issues worth looking into by government agencies that have control and jurisdiction over ABC matters.
Perhaps the Cebu City Council, the Department of Interior and Local Government or the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas can look into this. Here are some of the allegations worth looking into:
--That the ABC is overstaffed. According to the source, the office has 60 employees, most of whom are doing nothing. They report to the office very late. And most of them were employed just to accommodate political supporters.
--ABC funds have already been exhausted because of unnecessary expenditures. Some of the expenses were for the personal needs of top officials and their cohorts. A member of the staff is very arrogant and is the one calling the shots in the office. Even barangay captains following up their requests have a hard time dealing with this staff member.
This fellow, who is close to the powers that be, is running for a post in a local government unit but has not resigned from the ABC, saying the organization is not a government entity and its employees are not under civil service rules. Is that so? Can the Civil Service Commission clarify this?
The official uses a government vehicle even on personal trip. Others utilize gasoline allocations for their private cars.
--An ABC official is reportedly romantically linked to a staff member and their “love affair” is already known among office employees.
Well, the contents of the white paper could be mere intrigues and gossips spread by people who have personal grudges against some ABC officials.
Readers can therefore accuse me of being a tsismoso for writing about this.
But I am doing this with the intention of informing government agencies that might be interested in looking into these issues.
As to the “love affair,” we will leave it to the concerned lovers to judge if what they are doing is acceptable in the eyes of God and the public. Wa nay labot ang lungsod ana.
