I AM wondering if President Digong Duterte was told that there were and there are former military generals who occupy board seats at Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA). I was a board member from 2009 to 2013 and I was privileged to be with some of them like former Armed Forces Chief of Staff Narciso Abaya and former Flag Officer in Command (FOIC) Ferdinand "Toto" Golez. After I left BCDA my friend General Greg Catapang also took a seat. And how come in one of his speeches the president was lamenting that no one from the military was appointed there. (He is fed wrong information in many instances). So he announced the appointment of a retiring Philippine Army commander. Just a side bar. Did you know some P5 billion for AFP modernization program went to the black hole, was never accounted for during the presidency of Fidel Ramos?
Yearly BCDA remits more than P2 billion and the greater percentage goes to the armed forces modernization. Like all government owned and controlled corporations (GOCC) hand their earnings ang goes to the national treasury. In those years I was with BCDA it gets first row like PAGCOR which remit annually close to P10 billion, the Land Bank of the Philippines around P7 billion and other state agencies handed their earnings to the president in a ceremony held in Malacañang. In the case of BCDA earnings, a big slice goes to the AFP. Then and now. That's the law.
For its part, Clark Development Corporation (CDC) hands hundreds of millions. Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) hands also in hundred of millions too. I remember then CDC President Art Tugade, an original Noynoy Aquino appointee with wide grin and beaming as he handed the check to the president in a Malacañang ceremony. Now more earnings for the state agency under the able leadership of President Noel Manankil.
The billions of pesos remitted by these GOCCs to the president in that ceremony goes afterwards to the national treasury for both houses of congress, the House of "Representathieves," er I mean Representatives and the senate will pass upon the national budget. That's where "disasters" happened.
It will melt your heart when you see on TV documentaries about children crossing rivers because of a lack of a connecting bridge in going to their school. When you see a classroom filled with kids and the classrooms had already seen better days, when you see no dryer for the palay harvest, when you see an almost impassable road with passengers crowded on top of a jeepney, you may scratch your head and ask yourself: "Nasaan napunta ang pera?"
It is public knowledge how they dipped their hands on the money intended for the public, and them feigning innocence would want you to throw up. I know a congressman from Pampanga whose appetite for money is insatiable. His greed is bottomless pit. Ask contractors from the province, they'll come up with only one name.
If as alleged that jailed scam queen Janet Lim Napoles pocketed something like P15 billion, then how much money lined up the pockets of these thieves in government. The kind of money stolen in the past many years I believe can even make a concrete road of all the rice paddies in the country. We have nobody to blame but voters whose palms were greased during election time.
Did you know that in the United States of America, pork barrel are given each congressman and senator each year, and was a matter of right by each for past many decades. Not a single cent was pocketed. That's why they have a strong democracy.
I have a friend who recently retired from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and told me and my friends how some congressmen, even those party list solons who demand a cut (SOP) from their Priority Development Fund (PDAF). "I can't stomach when I hear them pontificate on their alleged love of country and coming to the rescue the poor." Hypocrites!
Tweets:
- A revolutionary government? Why? Duterte is already a strong president.
+Royce Hotel in Clark Freeport is now the favorite among government workers to hold their conventions/seminars. Most accessible, easy to find.
- Shoppers lined up at Puregold PX store inside Clark Freeport during its recent sale. Is the Department of Trade monitoring these never ending sales among outlets? Just asking.