P.Noy must overhaul COA or bust

I have always believed that if the officials of the Commission on Audit (COA) played their roles properly, there would be no corruption in this country. Since I wrote the article that all COA officials should undergo a lifestyle check, I’ve gotten a lot of text messages and emails agreeing with my proposal. There are even others that emailed me giving names of COA officials who should be the first on the list. With that said, perhaps it is time for Congress to totally review how COA operates and come up with laws to strengthen it, especially those rules that end up corrupting the official.

Too often, COA rules are so stringent, it often forces for instance a regional director to be creative. A case in point is when COA doesn’t allow government officials to stay in 5-star hotels, which is to say, that it would only allow a regional director to stay in a cheap hotel that has rates so cheap, you’d probably end up staying up all night, then find a motel to sleep. So those regional directors who have relatives in Manila often stay with them. But those without relatives end up being “hosted” by a friend or patron who more often than not, gets something in return for helping a friend in government. This is a reality that needs to be addressed.

I can tell you more horror stories, where COA officials have become so arrogant; they practically become a mini “dictator” to a government office. Yet these officials are only public servants and despite their stringent rules … they still have some kind of discretion that they use or, should I say, misuse to the fullest. Hence corruption in the government has gotten worse! A case in point is a question: How could the Ampatuans amass so much fortune from Maguindanao, unless COA officials closed their eyes to their nefarious activities, making the government coffers as if it were their private piggybank?

 Being a COA official must be a very juicy post that COA Chairman Reynaldo Villar insists on keeping his post even if Malacañang officials have already revealed that his term already expired last Feb.2nd. But Villar says that his term would still expire in Feb. 2015. Surely this is an issue that is not difficult to ascertain and we hope this can be resolved soon.

If you ask me, no COA official should be allowed to stay in the same post for more than three years. Again, we call upon the Aquino government to come up with a program to clean the ranks of COA, as there can be no elimination of corruption unless the COA is totally overhauled. If PNoy can’t do that, then in less than a year since he took the reigns of power, he has already failed in his noble quest to rid our nation of corruption.

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I have always praised Atty. Gloria Estenzo-Ramos, executive director of the Philippine Earth Justice Center, on her role as one of Cebu’s foremost environmentalists. But then, like most environmentalists, they often go too far without realizing that they do more harm than good. I’m referring to the latest report we got from Atty. Ramos that she asked Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama not to buy garbage trucks in order to teach and compel the barangays to manage their own wastes. Say what?

While I do agree with her that the barangays ought to learn how to manage their own wastes and thus unburden many cities and municipalities, however this is not the stark reality today. Today, many barangays are totally dependent on their cities and municipalities, which is why I’ve always batted for a total review and overhaul of the barangay system, which in my book has become to inefficient because it is totally politicized!

Hence the suggestion by Atty. Ramos for the city not to buy garbage trucks is unacceptable! A city as big as Cebu needs lots of garbage trucks and we needed them yesterday. In fact there was a time that we Cebuanos were so proud of our garbage trucks because they were the compactor type of garbage trucks where its dirty cargo is picked up and strewn into our main streets. Yes, before we forget, the late Mayor Demetrio Cortes first introduced it in Mandaue City. I just hope that his son, Mayor Jonas Cortes would also equip Mandaue City with those types of garbage trucks.

Still on the barangays, the Cory Constitution says the barangay is “apolitical” yet that is not the reality today. Barangay officials have become a willing tool of the politicians who have unabashedly used or misused these barangay officials as their “bata-batas”. Hence if you are a mayor or your party won in that particular barangay, it is given a hefty budget from the city or municipal coffers. Consequently, in the barangays where the mayor or his party lost, it is only given a trickle, often totally denying basic services to residents in that barangay. I’m a taxpayer. One of the most basic services that the City of Cebu should continue giving to its constituents is garbage and sanitation. So let’s keep it that way!

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