FRONTLINE
By Ninez
Cacho-Olivares
So
who says Noynoy’s straight path, or even his no corruption, no
poverty slogan is working, and more importantly, credible?
Who
also says that the previous government was so corrupt and Noynoy’s
spotlessly clean?
Well, the yellows, but as their own Commission
on Audit (CoA) says, the Aquino government lost P101 billion to
corruption last year.
Now, Noynoy and his boys can’t possibly
lay the blame of government corruption on Gloria and her government,
since the CoA report that was released recently says this was for the
year 2011 — the year that Noynoy and his government were already in
power and position since 2010.
A report, quoting the CoA, said
government money was lost to 19 various forms of graft by which
public funds are stolen, misused or mishandled.
The Audit
Performance Summary Report for 2011 stated that P20.813 billion alone
was lost to “under-assessment or under-collection.”
The report
also said that state auditors found 157 cases of irregularities
pertaining to under-assessment or under-collection where a government
collecting agency failed to properly appraise revenue that is
supposed to be paid to the government.
Add to that, the
“profligacy or reckless spending” was the second biggest problem,
posting a loss of P18.654 billion due to 1,642 cases of
“unauthorized, irregular or unnecessary expenses.”
More:
Questionable government supply contracts, including those carried out
without the conduct of public biddings or do not comply with the
Government Procurement Reform Act, resulted in losses amounting to
P15.163 billion.
Some 692 contracts in 2011 fell under such
category, the report stated.
Then comes the “fourth biggest
problem” which covered some 104 “unutilized and/or
ineffective projects” worth P13.584 billion, followed by
unliquidated cash advances in the total amount of P7.534 billion in
1,003 different cases.
The so-called “unauthorized” or
“irregular” expenses and contracts certainly get Noynoy’s
political foes detained — on charges of plunder, such as the
Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) — a slew of officers
and board members who have recently been arrested. Would Noynoy then
order the arrest of his appointees whom the CoA report says are
corrupt “unauthorized and irregular expenses, or will these be
quickly dismissed by Noynoy, since these officers and officials are
his allies, no matter the profligacy?
And will the Noynoy
Ombudsman run after the Noynoy officials the way she does in the case
of Gloria Arroyo and the PCSO officials?
Absolutely not. Noynoy
and his allies are always given the special treatment, such as
shielding them from investigations and prosecution.
Have any of
the known allies of Noynoy ever been investigated, whether by the
House, Congress, the Department of Justice through Noynoy’s attack
dog, Leila de Lima, or even the Ombudsman?
To this day, their
focus is on Gloria and other political foes of Noynoy, but has
Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales gone after a big fish in the Noynoy
administration?
It is certain that complaints against some high
officials in the Noynoy administration have been submitted to
Carpio-Morales, and yet one never hears about a big fish in Noynoy’s
Malacañang being caught.
But back to Noynoy and his claimed
straight path, which has definitely gone crooked — as can be
gleaned from the CoA report.
How can Noynoy and his allies, with
such straight faces, claim to be so clean and honest and
incorruptible, when the CoA report shows otherwise?
How can Noynoy
even claim before the public that the senatorial candidates he has
picked for the 2013 polls have embraced the straight path and still
be believed? But of course, he can always rely on the manipulated
yellow surveys to make the numbers look good for him — especially
when he needs them.
But the people know better. Besides, there are
more poor Filipinos today, which, using his slogan of walang corrupt,
walang mahirap, translates to a lot of corruption in his government,
kaya maraming mahirap.
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