Thursday, August 09, 2007 Wenceslao: Cuenco’s pork barrel By Bong O. Wenceslao Candid Thoughts
MORE and more anomalies are being dug up from the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC), thanks to alert Commission on Audit (COA) personnel. Yesterday’s Sun.Star report about ghost purchases from Rep. Antonio Cuenco’s pork barrel given to the hospital is the latest, although this concerns funds spent in 2004 yet.
I first heard about the use of the congressman’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF, euphemism for pork barrel) from a VSMMC insider in the last campaign period. I did not bring that up in this column for lack of proof.
But when I read the 2004 COA report, I recalled what my source said. Three years after, the modus is still in place.
We know that the PDAF is being used to line the pockets of unscrupulous politicians and their people. What many do not know is how this is being done. For infrastructure projects funded by the pork barrel, the understanding is that there’s an SOP of, what, 10-20 percent? But what if the money is handed over to, say, VSMMC?
The setup is complicated because the corrupt official or his/her staff has to deal with another entity, the personnel of VSMMC. It turns out it can be done.
The 2004 COA report detailed the modus. You have to have a favored drug store, in the case of ghost purchases through fake prescriptions, or a favored drug firm, to get commissions (SOP).
Cuenco has washed his hands off the mess and raised the possibility that “staff members” in cahoots with VSMMC employees were responsible. I would give him the benefit of the doubt, though I would like to hear what COA probers will say about that. I heard of efforts to scuttle the 2004 COA report, thus action on it was delayed for years.
With this development, all eyes should now be on how money sourced from the PDAF of other Cebu lawmakers and handed over to VSMMC was spent.
That’s millions of pesos in taxes wasted if the same modus outlined by the COA report was followed. Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz has called for a probe. Her colleagues should issue a similar call.
In sum, we can say that corruption seems to be oozing from the pores of this hospital. Last week, Sun.Star received a white paper accusing a VSMMC nurse of having committed corrupt acts in that hospital for the past several years. This is unfortunate because this institution is the last hope for the poor who need medical attention.
Corruption there should therefore be considered a heinous crime.
