SHOCKING and insulting, this report by Gil Cabacungan, Jr., which appeared in the January 20, 2010 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer about how helpless the Lower House officials are in disciplining lazy and frequently absent members, prominent of which is Negros Oriental Representative Jules Ledesma IV who even had the temerity and gall and shameful request to draw his salaries, allowances and other benefits and P70 million share in the euphemistically named Priority Development Assistance Fund or pork barrel, despite reportedly not attending a single session of the inept, ineffective and lethargic 14th Congress.
Why would the House top officials be inutil in enforcing House rules, particularly truant members? Pray, listen to its Speaker Prospero Nograles say: We do not have rules that sanction people who are not present. The reason is the social contract between the elected congress (sic) and his constituents. If the constituents allow him to be absent and they keep on sending him back, what can we do? The sanctions are up to constituent (sic) and not up to us because we are equal, we represent one district. Sus!
The good Speaker, a lawyer, should know and do better than absolve his colleague Ledesma who probably spends all of his time cavorting with his actress wife, Assunta da Rossi. The diminutive (in figure and mentality, perhaps) congressman robs taxpayers' money by his prolonged absences in Congress where he should be staying, working and focused on important matters during sessions. There are other absence-prone congressmen in our midst, including a certain district in Pampanga.
By the way, what happened to the boastful pronouncement from certain House officials that there would be publication of the attendance sheet of members in order to shame them in public? Were the proponents themselves chronic absentees? Ha, ha.
Hear the admission by Nograles: These proposals do not get any broad support from members themselves, which was why Ledesma has been able to go through the 14th Congress with just a handful of appearances and still cash in his check.
Such a shameless, disgusting and abominable justification by, and admission of, the top man in the Lower House! With this shameless exposition and useless disbursements of taxpayers' money in order to accommodate the irrelevant House members, is Congress still that necessary in the operation and administration of government? Is it not redundant and therefore should be abolished? I say to Nograles, plague should come to you and your conspirators in Congress. By the way, what are the Commission on Audit team and resident Ombudsman doing all this time? Lazy and lethargic as the ones they were mandated to monitor? Duh.
Road rage in the context of a mother's professed undying and unparalleled love for her son. While overacting and over reacting to her son Jason's arrest by operatives of the NBI, Marlene Aguilar Ivler Pollard cannot be harshly blamed for her show of excessive affection for her stubborn child. She vowed to fight tooth-and-nail and against the whole world if need be just to protect her son. I do not condone Mom Marlene's reaction and behavior who is now to be charged with obstruction of justice, after all, a mother's love knows no boundaries.
YEPA. Regional Peso Managers Federation, Inc., in cooperation with the Department of Labor and Employment Region III and Pampanga Provincial Peso, is sponsoring the Year-End Performance Assessment, from January 20 up to the 22nd at the Century Resort Hotel in Balibago. Putting their best efforts to make the event successful are Beth Alonzo, President of RPMFI, Angeles City PESO Manager Del Deocales and her staff, DOLE Regional Director Ernesto C. Bihis and Alex Inza Cruz, Chief, Technical Services Support Division DOLE Region III and staff. At the opening ceremonies, in attendance were PESO managers, coordinators and staff, DOLE's provincial field offices and officials from the Bureau of Local Employment.