More pork for the pocket

The Supreme Court ruling that upheld a 2010 Commission on Audit (COA) ruling that held liable four officials of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center for disbursing more than P3 million worth of anti-rabies medicines using falsified prescriptions and receipts comes on the heels of public outrage over the pork barrel scam and its architects like Janet Napoles.

The medicine came from pork barrel funds of former Cebu Rep. Antonio Cuenco, who didn’t notice until too late that part of his P5 million medical assistance program was being lost to thieves.

To recall, Cuenco’s pork barrel funds were also used to buy goats and agricultural supplies for barangays of Cebu City’s south district when he was still in power. Later, it was found out that the goats and supplies went to barangays that didn’t need them.

The person responsible for the distribution, former councilor and association of barangay council president Eugenio Faelnar, was also later questioned by former congressman Tomas Osmeña for awarding more than P100 million to a lone contractor who delivered sub-par infrastructure projects.

An excerpt from the Supreme Court ruling on the VSMMC case sounds like a familiar refrain to a public already beyond weary with news of gross, abusive and brazen corruption of their officials:

“Examination showed that the purported patients-beneficiaries were mostly non-existent and there was no actual procedure followed except for the mere preparation of payment documents which were found to be falsified…”

The P3.38 million amount may look big to simple wage earners who would never hold that amount in his or her lifetime.

But it’s a pittance compared to the enormous sums of money that changed hands between Napoles and national legislators.

While VSMMC officials continue to be hounded by the case and in fact may face prosecution from the Ombudsman-Visayas, what happened to the inquiry on Faelnar and the possibility of filing charges against him?

There were reports that he or his son will run as barangay captain in Guadalupe in the October barangay elections, although he’s denied it.

VSMMC officials don’t have enough political clout to escape prosecution although two have already retired. Elected officials can either get elected to a new office or bide their time until the next election comes along.

These examples merely fortify the growing clamor to abolish the pork barrel or let the executive department administer it.