Friday, September 26, 2008 Roperos: What’s happening? By Godofredo M. Roperos Politics Also
REPORTS in the past few days on the handling of public funds by government entities with powers to disburse them betray their “carelessness.
Three stories from the national media give me the impression that people in public offices do not give a second thought on spending public funds, perhaps because it is no pain in their necks.
Let’s look first at the report about Malacañang becoming a travel agency. This has given rise to the slogan, “Join the Arroyo administration and see the world.” That joke is anchored on the fact that in the 2009 budget, the Palace is asking for additional P1 billion for the travels of the President and her staff.
Then there’s Sen. Miriam Defensor saying she discovered that the “P11.5 billion in public works project, made through congressional insertions in the 2008 budget, could be used to bolster the campaign funds of select lawmakers in the 2010 elections.”
She described it “as a cloak-and-dagger affair much worse than pork barrel because these were done in secret.” The insertions, she said, are a joint undertaking by members of the Senate and the House, so both chambers are guilty.
The other tale is about the P1.6 billion in unliquidated cash advances of the Philippine Army. Based on a report of the Commission on Audit, generals who headed the Army since 2003 had left behind them millions of cash advances that they failed to account for.
What they did with the funds is something that the generals concerned should be soldiers enough to come out and tell. The biggest amount is Lt. Gen. Efren Abu’s P997.5 million.
The National Defense budgetary request for 2009 is P56.54 billion. The Army is asking for P29.87 billion appropriations next year. The overall outlook of certain lawmakers about the military budget is one of suspicion that this is saddled with graft and corruption.
And so would be the budgets of other government agencies all through the years. What really went for public service may be considered as leftover funds from the “skimming” activities of the handlers. It’s quite an unkind thought, though.
The three cases I randomly picked from the papers. It just occurred to me that government revenues are products of hard work by taxpayers, and collected by government collectors, and funneled to various agencies and offices of the government from Malacañang down to the barangay of the remotest island of the archipelago.
Yet, the way some public officials spend the funds, it could appear to the average citizen as most thoughtless, unkind, and cruel to the taxpayers.
