EDITORIAL - Junket season

Neither swine flu nor the global recession could keep away a horde of congressmen from flying to Las Vegas to watch the bout this weekend between boxing champion Manny Pacquiao and Britain’s Ricky Hatton. Filipino taxpayers could only grumble that the congressmen should pay for their trip, knowing that lawmakers have mastered the art of blurring the line between public and private funds.

Speaker Prospero Nograles, justifying his trip, said he was part of Team Pacquiao. Nograles and his fellow travelers would have to be placed under observation for 10 days upon their return while anyone running a fever or showing flu symptoms would have to be quarantined upon their arrival, and that is no joke, the Department of Health announced yesterday. Swine flu has been reported in Reno, Nevada, and it would be unfortunate if the congressmen on a junket in nearby Las Vegas will bring home the deadly flu virus. Televised reports showed Filipinos in the United States saying they would simply watch the Pacquiao-Hatton match on TV to avoid contracting swine flu.

Although Filipinos are used to lawmakers enjoying more vacations than grade school students, it doesn’t mean taxpayers have to put up with public funds being used for lawmakers’ junkets. Every congressman on the trip to Las Vegas must be required to submit an official declaration of the funding source for the trip. Government auditors can later check the veracity of every declaration. But with the House Speaker himself on the trip, would there be political will to require such a declaration?

Also unfazed by warnings of a looming swine flu pandemic is President Arroyo and a pack of about 20 congressmen, who leave today for Syria and Egypt. Little wonder that it has become impossible in the past weeks to muster a quorum at the House of Representatives. Then again, if all that will preoccupy congressmen are Charter change and the Right of Reply Bill, perhaps they should all just stay away. If they contract swine flu during their junkets, they should keep out of the Philippines, and stay out.