Reminder for officials to lead 'modest lives'

TRAVEL STYLE: Our colleague Alex Magno assessed last Tuesday in his column what he said was an uneventful official trip to Thailand days ago of President Noynoy Aquino with a 52-member delegation that cost taxpayers P4.5 million.

Adverting to official trips, another STAR columnist Wilson Lee Flores recalled in Twitter that when Lee Kuan Yew was Prime Minister of Singapore, he traveled with his wife and an aide in an unpretentious manner.

I confirmed that item, as I witnessed it when I was covering diplomatic row for the old Manila Times. Lee Kuan Yew took regular Singapore Airlines flights. And many times he even lugged his own briefcase!

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MODEST LIVES: Mention of Lee Kuan Yew, now a retired octogenarian, sent me opening the Constitution to where it admonishes public officers about their having to lead modest lives.

Section 1 of Article XI says: “Public office is a public trust. Public officers and employees must, at all times, be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and efficiency; act with patriotism and justice, and LEAD MODEST LIVES.”

We have a surfeit of laws meant to thwart attempts of officials to gain undue advantage or illegally enrich themselves in office. But since the thieves running the government protect one another, these laws have remained a dead letter.

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WAR ISSUES: By coincidence, I just received the other day this e-mail on the late Harry S. Truman and his wife Bess Wallace.

The 33rd US President, Truman handled a host of war-related problems, such as the atom-bombing of Japan, the Soviet blockade of Berlin, the rehabilitation of war-ravaged Europe, the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the Korean conflict.

Truman, a Democrat, died on Dec. 26, 1972, at age 88, which is the present age of Lee Kuan Yew whose close friends, btw, also call him by his English name Harry.

Truman’s legendary upset victory over Thomas Dewey in the 1948 presidential elections demonstrated his ability to bounce back in adversity. Although his initial high approval ratings sank and made him one of the most unpopular men to leave the White House, assessment of his presidency became kinder after he retired.

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SIMPLE LIVING: Note this positive e-mail on Truman which can be read parallel to the Constitution’s call for modest lives:

“Harry Truman was a different kind of President. He probably made as many, or more, important decisions regarding our nation’s history as any of the other 32 presidents before him. However, a measure of his greatness may rest on what he did after he left the White House.

“The only major asset he had when he died was the house he lived in, which was in Independence, Missouri. His wife Bess had inherited the house from her parents and other than their years in the White House, they lived their entire lives there.

“When he retired from office in 1952, his income was a US Army pension reported to have been $13,507.72 a year. Congress, noting that he was paying for his stamps and personally licking them, granted him an ‘allowance’ and, later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year.

“After President Dwight Eisenhower was inaugurated, the former First Couple drove home to Missouri by themselves. No Secret Service escorted them.

“When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, ‘You don’t want me. You want the office of the President, and that doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it’s not for sale….’

“Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing, ‘I don’t consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise.’

“As President, he paid for all of his own travel expenses and food.

“Present-day politicians have found a new level of success in cashing in on the presidency, resulting in untold wealth.”

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LOST ROLEX: Talking of Singapore Airlines, businessman Bienvenido Santos complained to the airline that he lost his gold Rolex GMT 2 that he kept in a small bag while asleep in seat 14H (business class) on SQ297 flight from Singapore to Christchurch last Monday.

He said he could not imagine losing his watch worth $30,000, because of SIA’s supposed good reputation. He wants his loss compensated.

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NBI CLEARANCES: The clearances being issued by the National Bureau of Investigation have earned some P5 billion for the agency since 1997, according to its infotech partner Mega Data Corp.

More than 50 million clearances have been issued in the past 13 years, 6.5 million of them in 2010 alone. Around 25,000 individuals are served daily in 38 NBI regional and district offices and another 30 renewal kiosks and satellite offices.

Issued only to those with no derogatory records, the clearance secured for P115 in 30 minutes is needed for employment, business, visa applications, foreign travel, and government transactions.

In 2001, the NBI opened clearance renewal kiosks in shopping malls. Its first center in SM Mega Mall in Mandaluyong was designed to process 150 applications per day but it has been handling up to 1,500.

There are similar kiosks in Tutuban Mall in Manila, Park Square in Makati, Gotesco Grand Central in Caloocan, Robinsons Place in Cebu, Victoria Plaza in Davao, and Limketkai Mall in Cagayan de Oro. Clearances are also issued at the NBI offices in Muntinlupa, Pasig, Quezon, Marikina, Davao, and Imus.

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