EDITORIAL - End the official junkets

It is good that Interior and Local Government Secretary Jessie Robredo is discouraging the practice of local government officials and employees to go on junkets at public expense on the pretext of attending conventions, seminars and related activities in far away places, usually in resorts and other tourist attractions or in major urban centers.

Not that these conventions or seminars are a fake or that they are unnecessary. These activities may very well be real, legitimate and essential to the conduct of local governance. But nowhere does it say that these activities have to be done or held in big cities or tourist spots.

They could very well be held in the very own localities of the convention or seminar participants. It would entail much less expense to the public coffers if it is the speakers and other resource persons needed for these activities to be the ones who are brought to the local venues.

Of course, such expensive trips may have their own benefits. They may serve to expand the horizons of local officials and employees. But the big question is — how absolutely necessary must the expanded horizon be to, say, a barangay secretary or treasurer? A recent trip to Cebu City by all barangay officials from an obscure town in Leyte must have been an eye-opener to Robredo.

Or take as an example that funny case that happened a few years ago, before Robredo became DILG secretary, when local officials from Bicol, where he is from, were discovered to have paid a “horizon-expanding” trip to the known red light district in Cebu City, resulting in a lot of red faces for both the local officials and their visitors.

Again, many of these conventions and seminars may very well serve some useful purpose. But as many have long found out, these activities are being used as an excuse to go on an all-expense-paid junket at public expense. What the participants may have been exposed to and learned about may be of absolutely no use to their places of work or origin.

From what we learned, however, Robredo may just have been speaking out his mind. So unless he puts some real teeth to his call of discouraging such activities, his words may end up just being good for their sound bytes but not expected to have some real and meaningful benefit for the taxpaying public.