Some administration officials think the President’s “daang matuwid (straight and narrow path)” slogan is a joke.
For example, reliable sources at the Philippine National Railways (PNR) have informed this columnist of the alleged profligate spending of company funds for food and entertainment by a PNR official.
A Commission on Audit (COA) report, according to my sources, indicated that the concerned PNR official reportedly spent P1.46 million in 2011.
The same official’s food and entertainment expenses have reached P1.1 million as of May 2012, or seven months before the year ends.
Another example of an irregularity at the PNR is the delivery of P49 million worth of soft wood railway tiles when the bidding and subsequent award was intended very clearly to be hardwood as specified in the bidding documents, the sources said.
COA Deputy Commissioner Heidi Mendoza is looking into this matter through the resident COA auditor at PNR.
Agham party-list Rep. Angelo Palmones has also urged the PNR to investigate the reported irregularity.
A former PNR official, who is now working for a multinational firm, has complained that a PNR official has been withholding the payment to his company of items the railway agency had ordered.
“There are other suppliers and service providers of the PNR that are also complaining like us,” said the ex-PNR executive.
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I was cheering when the tough-talking Davao City Vice Mayor Rody Duterte offered a bounty for a suspected head of a car theft syndicate operating in Mindanao.
Duterte said he was offering a P1 million reward for Ryan Yu if he is brought to him alive, P4 million if dead and P5 million for his severed head.
The controversial Duterte, who’s running again for mayor in next year’s polls, made the offer in front of TV cameras during a news conference.
Yu, whose residential compound in the city yielded numerous stolen cars, got Duterte’s ire for reportedly dropping the name of Duterte’s son, Paolo, as his protector.
Why was I cheering on Duterte when he apparently advocated a “short cut” in dealing with crime suspect Yu?
Because rich offenders like Yu are likely to be acquitted by our courts.
Many judges and justices can be bought.