Outlawing credit-grabbers

A proposed bill by Sen. Miriam Santiago that prohibits public officials from taking credit for projects received early public support, but it’s quite doubtful that it would make its way past Congress and into the desk of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.

The bill came on the heels of a similar bill previously filed by Sen. Francis Escudero and a circular by the Department of Interior and Local Governments (DILG) that required lawmakers to remove their names and their pictures from government projects and programs.

According to the proposed bill’s provisions, the penalties include a six-month prison sentence and a fine that reportedly ranges anywhere from P50,000 to hundreds of thousands of pesos.

If by some remote possibility the bill is approved, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has three months to remove the names and photos of all public officials printed on infrastructure and services.

In pushing for the bill, Santiago said the “highly unethical practice” of placing the names and images of elected and appointed public officials in projects “promotes a culture of political patronage and corruption,” something that this country’s political culture has tons of.

But even without the bill, the DILG circular has achieved some noticeable and pleasant changes; the faces of Rep. Rachel del Mar of Cebu City’s north district and her father, former congressman Raul del Mar, were removed in the buses that were used to transport her constituents from one point in Cebu City to another.

Likely, Santiago’s bill if passed will affect the “E-Gwen” programs of the current Capitol administration. We have yet to verify if Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia’s images in the billboards where the projects were completed have been removed.

Again, it is highly doubtful that the Santiago bill will pass; first-time elected officials will complain that the projects implemented in their district were also made possible through their lobbying efforts and, as such, should also be credited to them even if they get just a passing mention.

Unless they’re actors, popular musicians or sports heroes like Manny Pacquiao, their chances of reelection are dependent on those images and names that were plastered all over those infrastructure that may have been built using substandard materials.

But there’s still hope. Support for Santiago’s bill can be lobbied through social media and an active grassroots campaign that can pressure lawmakers of both houses of Congress to pass it for approval to the President.

And it should be passed if only to give back credit to the taxpayers whose money funded the projects in the first place.