Saturday, June 28, 2008 Carvajal: ‘Lakbay-aral’ as junkets By Orlando P. Carvajal Break Point
THEY claim they are paying their own way to go with President Arroyo to the US. But who believes them? Since when have our congressmen spent their own money to pay for personal trips here and abroad when everybody sees them routinely using government resources and spending people’s money for their own personal delight?
But then they could be telling the truth because they believe their pork barrel and fat allowances are their personal money to spend. It is not called pork barrel for nothing. It is de facto for the miscellaneous expenses of legislators.
For the President and local government unit executives their spending money is the so-called intelligence fund.
Or maybe it’s the President who is spending for their trip from her own personal money (translate: pork barrel or intelligence fund). This is quite possible since one can be sure none of the fifty or so congressmen in her entourage voted for her impeachment.
Yet that is not really the point. Maybe the President could not re-schedule the trip, she being the principal actor in the visit to the US. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that she went ahead with the trip because she got immediate assistance from the US for the typhoon victims.
But, and this is the point, what business do congressmen have in going ahead with the trip when the country was being brought down to its knees by typhoon Frank? It would be interesting to know if any of the congressmen came from badly hit areas and how much personal money they contribute to the relief fund for typhoon victims.
It is no longer a secret that one of the wasteful projects of government is the so-called lakbay-aral trip of all kinds of government bureaucrats. As I write, for instance, the mayor and councilors of my hometown Barili are on a lakbay-aral trip, this time to Malaysia.
These trips are pure and simple junkets and a terrible waste of government money because they are really meant only to reward government officials for loyalty. If you notice, even rice is distributed through loyal political leaders. In any case, like in Barili, I have not seen anything officials learned from their lakbay-aral trips that have been implemented. They do not even bother to give an accomplishment report upon their return from these trips.
What have they learned about garbage collection, about drainage and water systems and traffic control on these trips? Judging from the relatively primitive garbage disposal system, the crude and inadequate drainage in many municipalities and the chaotic traffic situation in our streets, our government officials have not really learned anything from their lakbay-aral trips. On these trips, they just have one heck of a junket, that’s why.
