The people are angry. VERY ANGRY. This is the unvarnished truth. Corruption, as viewed now, is already alarming and acknowledge by everyone except the citizens below the so-called poverty line. Yes, President Bongbong Marcos is also angry and shamed the shameless and callous solons during his July State of the Nation address. Many of them played dumb. Again we heard it with clarity how billions of pesos in our treasury was lost to corruption in the initial hearing of the Senate’s Blue Ribbon hearing presided by Senator Rodante Marcoleta. Senator Panfilo Lacson exposed in his privilege speech on how the collusion between certain congressmen, DPWH officials and contractors stole billions of taxpayers money. Ghost projects,etc.
But let’s face it. Bad government emanates from the palace and cascades to the line departments and to the LGUs. The Senate and the House of Representatives and local government units became denizens of some thieves over time. There are very few whose aren’t soiled by dirty money.
There are many people involved in the anomalous biddings of government projects. Fake bidding is frequently done. The bidding happens in the agency office, say for example at a district office of Department of Public and Highways, National Irrigation Agency, Department of Education etc. etc. In most cases, the ‘sindikato’ already conducted their own ‘bidding’ and the winning bidder is already pinpointed and including the price of the winning bid. The arrangement is for the pre-arranged winner to set aside three percent of the total package cost to be equitably among the designated participants. If it’s a orchestra at work, maybe the congressman is the conductor.
Let’s be graphic for easier understanding how things were done and still being done with impunity despite repeated expose.The procurement law mandates that all government projects are to be subjected to competitive bidding, and that biddings of projects are to be advertised on newspapers of general circulation and on the PHILGEPS, the government website. Having done that, the concerned agency will start selling bid documents, and the amount will depend on the project cost. Now the participants will be known and who will be participating in the bidding. The work starts for the ‘sindikato’ here.
The pinpointed winning bidder has his money ready for distribution to the bidding participants. The three percent will now be distributed equitably and everybody will be happy on their way to the bank. They got their ‘pamalengke’, but not yet the people from the regional and district offices whose sticky fingers must be greased, or else. That’s how they do it folks. But when confronted they will feign innocence and make impressions they are lily white.
In that rigged bidding, the congressman or a senator has to be given his demanded share. It is a separate story if the one involved is a senator. It is bigger if he or she made the follow up to the Department of Budget and Management That’s only the first instance. There is a long list of people who will assert what’s due them based on what’s euphemistically called SOP (standard operating procedure). Maybe 10 or 15% for congresssman, 5 or 10 % on the head of the agency, small percentages on every office like quality control, resident auditor, cashier and few others who will be given balato. You minus the VAT of 12% and the allowable 10% contractor’s profit, you have now ladies and gentlemen how much went into that road project. Two years later you will see cracks and cratered.