The hard part

 

NOW that the electorate has decided on their barangay leaders, now comes the hard part.  How to make them accountable for their barangays’ funds as may be shown by their adopted projects… or absence of projects.

When barangays elections used to be boring and hardly considered an event to remember, our country has not seen as many candidates who sought positions in their barangays as in the previous election. Worse, rampant violations of election rules were reported by voters themselves, that ranged from vote-buying to excessive and expensive production of campaign materials.

These observations have given rise to speculations whether the winners who spent a handy sum for their election will, like their counterparts in the municipal, district and national officers, also resort to extraneous means to recover their “investments”? It is no longer a state secret that many barangays are now known to be awash with cash, thanks to their share of the Internal Revenue Allotment and other sources, including collection of fees and taxes, and COA does not have the means and capability to audit their books of accounts.

For the education of barangay residents, the Department of Bureau and Management have posted in its website. Be informed. Be empowered before a barangay leader begins to think he, unlike the senators and congressmen whose fingers were caught pocketing public funds, he or she is much too smart than others to be caught misusing the funds. Check it out at http://www.dbm.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/BB-2.pdf.

Let us begin to be more vigilant in the barangay level with this information because it is this vigilance that will warn national leaders that yes, we are no longer indifferent, that our demand for complete transparency and accountability can no longer be taken for granted.

 

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A circus, mockery?

 

WHAT can we expect from Janet Lim-Napoles when she appears on Nov. 7 at the Senate that is probing a P10-billion scam that Napoles had allegedly masterminded?

Common sense would tell us Napoles would have her lips sealed.  We are a free country and no one can force anyone to speak.  Napoles can always invoke that right enshrined in the Constitution.

However, if Napoles would prove uncooperative as to skirt questions by providing answers deemed insufficient or ridiculous, the Senate blue ribbon committee headed by Sen. Guingona may declare Napoles in contempt.  That could mean possible detention for Napoles. But then, isn’t Napoles being detained already at Fort Sto. Domingo in Santa Rosa, Laguna?

A circus could be in the offing here, if not a downright mockery with the Senate possibly on the receiving end—the sorry victim of a charade?

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