Incubator for sleaze

The column “Dark Money” published by  Inquirer Feb. 2 uncorked a slew of  furious reader reaction against legislators who hefted Concurrent Resolution 10 (CR10) to block audits of their tax-money splurges. The solons, at the same time, demanded transparency from others. “Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits,” Mark Twain wrote.

Cobbled by Sen. Panfilo Lacson, CR10 twisted budget items like “maintenance and other operating expenses” (MOOE) into a personal kitty for “dark money.” An on-my-word-of-honor certification by a legislator did away with irksome Commission on Audit (COA) reviews.

Thus, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile gift-wrapped last Christmas P1.6 million in MOOE checks for 18 “friendly” senators. In the Lower House, members badgered CR10 into ATMs. Members key in the right combo and taxpayers’ pesos cascaded forth. “Wrongs aren’t wrong, if it’s done by nice people like ourselves”?

Brickbats from readers insist that the nub of corruption is to exempt oneself from a community’s rules. Sleaze metastasizes into hypocrisy when legislators urge others to hew by standards they scoff at.  You “strap heavy loads on a man’s shoulders,” the Master ticked off the Pharisees: “But you never lift a finger to ease the burden.”

“Liquidating billions of taxpayers’ money by mere ‘certification’” is daylight robbery,” Wakats e-mailed. Worse, “distinguished senatongs” put to shame, in their probes many heads of agencies for corrupt practices they themselves are guilty of. Remember former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Angelo Reyes who committed suicide? Sen. Jinggoy Estrada ridiculed Reyes at public hearings for receiving pasalubong from AFP on his retirement.  Yet Jinggoy feeds from the CR10 trough.  COA should have audited Congress without fail..

“No need for Congress to do away with  CR10,” the Inquirer of Feb. 3 quotes Lacson as saying,” Dr. Carolina Camara from Cagayan de Oro wrote.  Anyway, COA’s Grace Pulido Tan trashed CR10 by starting a long overdue audit. Lacson is drafting a Senate circular that’d detail “new guidelines on the liquidation of expenses, based on COA’s guidance.”

“Who appointed Lacson to interpret for COA?” asks Dr. Camara Legislators are capable of reading COA  guidelines. Is this just Lacson’s desire to keep his progeny CR10 in the incubator? Will CR10 be resuscitated when we’re all looking the other way? Lacson even preempts Tan and insists: Audit will be “prospective” and examine only 2013 books. That’d blindfold taxpayers to previous plunder. No way Jose.

“We have two kinds of morality side by side,” philosopher Bertrand Russell once noted: “One which we preach but do not practice and another which we practice but seldom preach.” Lacson fits that bill.

“No senator stepped forward  to say they’re willing to return public funds they’ve received as Christmas gifts from Enrile,” notes “Buninay.” The Senate won’t recover until all gifts are returned, because public funds must revert to the national treasury, adds Hellomr. Only then can they start talking of integrity. Don’t hold your breath, commented Kolambogan. “They’re displaying traditional “‘Honor Among Thieves.'” If any one returns, that would repudiate “Santa Claus.”

“It’s hard to drive a dog from a butcher’s counter,” e-mailed . Kapayapaan_1900. We must remove morally bankrupt people in Congress and discontinue electing people who reinforce their families and cohorts in power. Otherwise, this no-holds-barred money making machine called “pork barrel,” will continue to entice people joining this exclusive club.

The public was not even aware that a bastard of this legalized scheme called MOOE existed until one of them whistled “foul” due to unequal distribution of (loot). It’s simple ?  Who will  kill the goose that lays the golden egg?

Why is the stink over CR10 mostly confined to print or cyber media? asks Kayanatwo. Radio or television talk-shows need to do more investigative reporting and let 93 million plus  Juan de La Cruzes know about pressing issues like political dynasties, economic gaps, etc.

CR10 is a case in point. The common tao “living outside the National Capital Region are not fully aware about  officials conniving with each other on how to loot the national treasury legally.” Do the electronic media view the “masa” as “bobo” and therefore deserve dumb teleseryes? These are hollow and sensationalize news and showbiz happenings.

“Bum Weed (PDI/Jan. 29)  questioned Commission on Elections Resolution 9615. This provides for mandatory right of reply (RoR).  “Candidates aggrieved by press reports can demand to have their side published in the same prominence or in the same time slot as the first statement.”

The Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, Cebu Citizens Press Council, among others, slammed the stitching of RoR provisions into rules for the May 13 elections. If need be, they’ll challenge this rule before the Supreme Court.

Constitutional scholar Joaquin Bernas noted that prevailing jurisprudence, notably the 1974 US Supreme Court’s decision in Miami Herald vs Tornillo, struck down RoR as unconstitutional.

“ROR can also mean Retort of Rulers,” writes AllaMo. “Still, it causes one to retch.” “Indeed, this is the classic case of having one’s cake and eating it too,” adds Buninay. Misbehaving politicians get into the news through their own fault. Resolution 9615 compells   free media space to explain away the besmirching news. In effect, RoR amounts to media shooting their foot every time they take on unsavory characters.