Palace backs Miriam bill vs politicians' posters

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang supports the bill that Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago filed seeking to remove posters and billboards of politicians on public projects being undertaken in their respective local government units.

“We welcome that initiative of Senator Santiago,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said yesterday, referring to Senate Bill 1967 that would prohibit politicians from claiming credit for projects built using public funds. 

She said that this has always been the policy of the Aquino administration, noting the remarks the President made shortly after he assumed office when he directed agencies to remove his posters and billboards on government-funded projects.

“The President was very clear on that from early on, that he doesn’t want such practice. You could see that there are no billboards with the President’s face, only the project,” she said.

Santiago wants the taxpayers instead to get credit for the projects, and not the politicians.

The bill is entitled “An Act Prohibiting Public Officers from Claiming Credit through Signage Announcing a Public Works Project.”

She said public officials have no business claiming credit for projects funded by taxpayers’ money.

“It is a prevalent practice among public officers, whether elected or appointed, to append their names to public works projects which were either funded or facilitated through their office,” Santiago said in the bill’s explanatory note.

“This is unnecessary and highly unethical” and “promotes a culture of political patronage and corruption,” Santiago added. 

The bill imposes a jail term of between six months and one year on a public official who would have his or her name or image printed on a “signage announcing a proposed or ongoing public works project.”

The prohibition also applies to existing government projects that are undergoing maintenance or rehabilitation. The bill only allows signs that bear the name, image or logo of the local or national government agency handling the project.

Santiago said allowing incumbents or appointees to grab undue credit “diminishes the importance that the public needs to place on supporting government officials, not because of their popularity, but because of their essential role in policy determination, whether on the local or national level.”

“Secondly, it diminishes the concept of continuity in good governance in the mind of the public,” she said.

If passed into law, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), in coordination with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), has three months from the day of the law’s effectivity to remove “all existing signages” that violate its provisions.

Sen. Francis Escudero had also filed a bill criminalizing the naming of government projects after any public official.

Escudero filed Senate Bill 2187 seeking to criminalize the practice of naming government projects after public officials such as waiting sheds, ambulances and even trash bins saying that nobody should lay claim on public funds and freely spend it for “personal and political vanity.”