Punchline
The Quinto Report
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
NOW that Dagupan’s COA resident auditor Virgilio Quinto has submitted his initial report on the transactions of the city government for the year 2012-2103, what were deemed speculations by cynics from the Lim camp are now irrefutable facts.
The report revealed how and why the city was almost bankrupt by the time Mayor Belen Fernandez assumed office last July.
The amounts of money illegally disbursed, unliquidated and unaccounted for are mind boggling if one considers the constant denial of Lim’s officials during their heydays.
While the Quinto report did not categorically state that there was premeditated plunder of the city that started in 2010, that the conspiracy to defraud the city by the Lim administration was active until its last days, the recommendations said it all.
It’s time for payback. The Dagupeños who paid their dues and taxes in the honest belief that they shared in the responsibility to help develop the city, deserve no less than to publicly shame the characters who knowingly stole their money from the city’s coffers. Their names cannot remain archived by the city hall.
They must be charged in court. Question is: Will Mayor Belen Fernandez and her allies in the city council have the political will to do what is right for the city?
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DISCREDITED. For starters, former Mayor Benjie Lim and city administrator Vlad Mata must be made to lead the parade of the discredited and dishonest to the office of the Ombudsman.
The members of Lim’s finance committee, namely Virgilio Tangco as budget officer, Tessie Manaois as city accountant, Romelita Alcantara as city treasurer, be made to explain why they did what they did to mislead the people about the city’s finances. Then, former city auditor Ofelia Celi should be made to explain why she lent herself to the cover-up by not faithfully reporting the irregularities being committed with impunity by Mr. Lim and his cohorts in her 2010 and 2011 annual reports.
Perhaps one of them can opt to become state witnesses if he/she proved to be the unwilling participant forced to join the plot to plunder.
If they are not made to account as mandated by law, then Ms. Fernandez cannot expect others to finally reform themselves. In fact, many incorrigible remnants of the Lim regime will continue to attempt to sabotage her efforts if they find her weak and unwilling to punish the likes of them. The perception would be: crime also pays under the BTF administration.
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SINNING BY SILENCE. Now that the cold facts and figures are before them, the Dagupan City councilors no longer need to imagine how the senators and congressmen feel about their investigation of the pork barrel scam that involves their own peers. They are in the same quagmire. They cannot simply sweep the dirt that they left to be accumulated under the rug.
Like the senators who have some of their peers caught in the web of corruption, the city councilors will have to deal with the knowledge that some of their own colleagues received funds and refuse to account for these to this day.
Recall how in 2011 when then Councilor Brian Lim dared and taunted Councilor Alfie Fernandez and his allies in the majority to sue his mayor-father for a reported anomaly. Councilor Maybelyn Fernandez and the majority councilors retreated with their tails between their legs. If perhaps they had not backed down, the litany of anomalies discovered today would have been pared down, and the city’s fiscal position would still be in the pink of health. So whether they like it or not, they must share in that blame for the city’s plunder for failing to act.
US’ Abe Lincoln must have had them in mind when he said: “They sin by silence, when they should protest, makes cowards of men.”
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LEGACY OR NOTORIETY. The way I see it, the city councilors only have two ways to look at what’s before them. 1) To immediately call for an investigation by a committee on the extent of the conspiracy to commit plunder while calling on Vice Mayor Brian Lim to inhibit himself during public hearings or 2) To look away and be the political hypocrites like the 3 proverbial monkeys (bakes) who pretend they don’t see, hear speak no evil.
The people are giving the councilors in the majority (and some in the minority who wish to vindicate themselves) another chance to make good on their pledge to fight for the city’s interests without fear of favor.
They cannot but further investigate those involved in the documented anomalies, including one of their own, to give justice to the city that was left to bleed. They must establish the extent of the accountabilities of the officials and consultants who have been named by the Quinto report.
Unless and until the present crop of councilors ground their teeth into this sordid tale of corruption, they cannot hope to bring honor and glory to their family name as truly dedicated public servants. They would still be the onor-onors and the Judas 9 of the past…and today’s modern bakes who pretend not to see, hear and speak no evil.
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THEY, TOO? An even more disturbing aspect of the Quinto report is the confirmation that NGOs, business, civic and professional groups unabashedly shared in the loot on the pretext of helping the city. That’s a whooping P105 million shared among themselves, courtesy of the Lim administration!
Unfortunately, the special audit has cast a cloud of doubt on all NGOs and civic groups because no details were provided except that all the beneficiaries did not liquidate the funds they received. Perhaps some indeed, spent the funds for which they were intended but failed to comply with the administrative reporting. Still some leaders (or FOM – Friends of the Mayor) simply pocketed the funds paid for by taxpayers after they were made to believe that they didn’t have to account for the funds.
The PUNCH will publish the list next week in fairness to the groups that were not favored with any “assistance,” to members of groups who knew nothing about the “assistance” and to the listed groups that are not aware that they have accountabilities.
We will leave it to the leaders of the listed groups to explain to their constituents how their organizations got drawn into the mess.
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LESSONS. What the senate hearings on the pork barrel scandal are proving once again is the fact that crimes committed in public office cannot ever escape public scrutiny because there is always the paper trail to reckon with.
The recent reports of the auditors of Binmaley and Dagupan are proofs that all it takes is for one good man/woman or groups to stand up to do the right thing.
If one follows the reports of the ombudsman, complaints filed against past governors, mayors, board members and councilors continue to be investigated and prosecuted long after they have stepped down.
Our present crop of local public officials can consider themselves fortunate because they can still learn from the past’s grievous mistake – believing there is no policy of accountability in government. They ought to know that there are a hundred and one government rules and laws that can be invoked for one simple irregularity, regardless of amount.
It would be their worst misfortune if they do not see the writings on the wall.
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