Lamppost mess: COA gives proof of scam

There’s a new report coming out of the Commission on Audit (COA) that P4 million in the so-called “lamppost scam” in Cebu was very much overpaid and that six officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) were asked return this money. Wait, is this what’s really happening here, just to return the money and all is forgiven? I don’t think so. Once again, this belated COA report is clear proof that there was indeed truth in the accusations in the lamppost scam. So why hasn’t the Office of the Ombudsman not proceeded with the filing of cases against the guilty parties? I call it a blatant obstruction of justice!

If you ask me, this COA report is even incomplete. It states that the prices were bloated and that the contractor should never have been paid and yes, no bidding was conducted. Which are all correct, but there’s no mention at all of the substandard quality of these lampposts. We’ve written it here before that in less than a year of use, many of these lampposts were already in varying state of disrepair. Thus we paid a high price for very poor quality lighting, which is why we taxpayers are indignant about this scam and above all, why is it taking the Office of the Ombudsman so damn long to file cases against the guilty parties?

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When I learned that “Nicole,” the girl who accused US Marine Lance Corporal Daniel Smith of raping her years ago, had suddenly changed her story, my reaction was, “I knew it!” That’s because when we read the facts, where she voluntarily went out with Smith for a drinking spree, she was literally asking for it! This is not to condone that anyone who goes out with a girl for a nightout is entitled to rape her. What I’m saying is, she should have known the risks she took in going out with strangers.

What happened to Nicole was a classic Pinoy style set-up, where with the help of her leftist friends, this story was blown out of proportion, just like what happened in the case of taxi driver Marcelo Batestil who claimed that he was beaten up by two US Marine officers, when, in fact, he forced the issue against them, trying to say that his taxicab was “hired” by the two which triggered an altercation. This case, too, was blown out of proportion by anti-American groups to discredit the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and in the end, it was Cebu’s tourism industry that suffered the loss of the monthly visits by the US 7th Fleet.

No doubt, these people were mere pawns in this game between two nations. But at least, we can put the Nicole issue behind us and forget that this ugly incident happened in this country. I would like to believe that the friendship and the strategic alliance between the Philippines and the United States is far more important than the private problems of some people; after all, we were once a colony of the United States of America. Although I must say that there’s a world of difference between a Filipino and an American.

A case in point in the difference between a Filipino and an American can be seen from the financial scandals that have gripped Wall Street and the Legacy Group because these scandals exploded into the national consciousness almost simultaneously. Of course, I’m referring to the scam of Bernard Madoff who literally made off with $177 billion in a “Ponzi” scheme, embezzling the rich and the famous and yes, including many NGOs that help poor and developing countries. But at least Madoff has already pleaded guilty to his crime and will soon be given the sentence he deserves.

Meanwhile, the Legacy Group claims that the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) should pay P6 billion in claims, but now the PDIC doubts this very much. Even when he has already been caught for defrauding his depositors and worse, bribing a SEC commissioner, Celso de los Angeles is still fighting as if he’s the only honest person around, while the rest are guilty! If Celso de los Angeles has some shame left in him, he should stop fighting the people he had wronged and plead guilty.

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The latest Social Weather Station (SWS) report published in another national daily proves what I’ve always said before about these surveys… that they can be terribly inconsistent. The SWS report apparently reveals that hunger is “down substantially.” I will not go into the nitty-gritty of this latest SWS survey, but this proves the point we’ve been driving at for many years that these surveys can be so damn inaccurate, as it should show that in these trying times, hunger should be higher than expected… not lower or down!

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. He also hosts a weekly talkshow, “Straight from the Sky,” every Monday, 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.