State of this administration

As the end of its term gets closer, this administration’s reputation is tarnished even more because of unabated scandals and unexplained shady deals. What would have been some sort of another rare feather in its cap as the first leader in Asia given an audience by US President Obama even just for 45 minutes, was still overshadowed by that expensive dinner party in a posh New York restaurant where the President and her entourage spent close to P1 million for food and drinks on the very eve of their return to Manila to attend Cory’s wake.

Downplaying the incident and pointing to a Congressman who is a constant travelling companion in every presidential trip as the one who footed the bill, does not make it less scandalous and distasteful. Maybe such affair may not be considered extravagant and immoderate if it is held for a President of a country which is not No. 5 among the 56 countries where the hunger is prevalent and where the hunger rate has risen to 20.3 percent in the second quarter from 15 percent in the first quarter.

The more this caper is explained by the presidential drumbeaters, the murkier it becomes especially because they continue to miss the point by merely emphasizing on who spent for the party rather than why such lavish gathering was even held. Their belligerent and haughty stance to the extent of attacking the media that was merely reporting the incident only fan the flames of indignation rather than suppress the growing dismay over it. They are utterly mistaken if they believe they can shamelessly and arrogantly face their critics until everything dies down. Already, reports are coming out that the President and her staff had another party in Washington DC where another $15,000 was spent for food and drinks. Obviously the cost is lower because the group is smaller. But it still looks extravagant and scandalous.

They should have listened to Senator Miriam Santiago who suggested that the President make an apology for the incident. An apology here is very much different from the apology in the “Hello Garci” scandal. Here the indiscretion is purely a human weakness that could happen to any person even to a president especially after emerging from a reportedly successful meeting with the President of the United States. The euphoria of the moment may really call for such kind of celebration. People will understand her and would even appreciate or admire her humility and humanity especially if the apology will be coupled with an order for her staff to render an accounting of all her trips abroad.

Rejecting Senator Santiago’s suggestion is the clear but very unfortunate sign that this administration will brazen it out until the end of its term; that it will stubbornly stick to its present policy of opaqueness in the aspects of its governance which have been tainted with irregularities and anomalies. So like it or not, this administration can no longer erase the stigma of corruption up to the end of its term.

The future leaders of our country could learn important lessons from what is happening to our government now and why dishonest, fraudulent and shady deals remain unabated and prevalent. Obviously, there is lack of leadership by example or the leadership gives bad example. The latest controversy revolving around such a simple matter as the President’s Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net-Worth (SALN) undoubtedly confirms this observation. All government officials know that this document is a very public document easily available for scrutiny. Hence it should be filled up clearly, accurately and truthfully so that even if it is examined by anybody, there can be no question or doubt or speculation as to its contents. Unfortunately this is not the case with the President’s own SALN particularly her net worth that more than doubled from P66.8 million in 2001 to P143.5 million in 2008 or a growth rate of 114 percent.

To be sure such unusual growth of her wealth is not conclusive proof that she has enriched herself in office but at least it reflects something amiss in the contents of the SALN that calls for explanation to avoid speculation that there was manipulation in its preparation in order to hide some wealth. Her lawyers’ stance not to give further information to clear the doubt because it will be going down a “slippery slope” all the more fuels speculation that something is hidden somewhere. This is not good leadership by example. In fact it just further confirms the lack of transparency and accountability on the government’s performance of its job — the same stance it adopted in all the other previous reports and accusations of lying, cheating and stealing that have not been conclusively resolved because their full blown inquiries were stifled by her allies in Congress and/or by an Ombudsman whose independence is highly questionable.

This brings us to the other lesson for our future leaders — the appointment of an independent Ombudsman with responsibility, integrity, loyalty and efficiency. Sad to say, violations of the Anti-Graft law and other laws against corruption in high places have undoubtedly become more rampant because of the Ombudsman we now have. She is supposed to be the epitome of loyalty and efficiency. Yet what she has shown so far is loyalty not to her oath but to the ruling power. Her past decisions dismissing graft charges against people close to Malacanang clearly attest to this. She is primarily task to promote efficiency in government but her inaction in the fertilizer fund scam involving Joc Joc Bolante definitely shows that she herself is inefficient and not up to the task.

At the height of the renewed furor over this scam when Bolante was forced to return after fleeing, the Ombudsman through her outspoken spokesman De Jesus repeatedly declared that the preliminary investigation of the case will be terminated within 90 days from submission of the counter-affidavit. In this preliminary investigation, she has to determine only whether the evidence is enough to establish probable cause or reasonable grounds to believe that Bolante should be charged in the Sandiganbayan and should be held for trial. She need not gather and evaluate all evidence necessary to convict Bolante because that is the function of the court. Up to now however, after almost 9 months since that announcement, and more than five months since the Senate itself finished its inquiry and found probable cause against Bolante, the Ombudsman has not yet acted on the case and has even gagged her outspoken spokesman. These are circumstances that points to no other conclusion that the Ombudsman is looking for some palatable grounds to clear Bolante of liability for P728 fund scam like her clearance of Abalos in the billion peso Comelec-Mega Pacific automation deal. So don’t be surprised if Bolante also gets off the hook.

These are really the times when people seem to miss a leader like the late President Cory Aquino even more. If that longing feeling further intensifies there may be a repeat of that massive turn out of people as in the historic nine hour-nine kilometer long funeral procession for the late beloved Tita Cory.

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