THE Quad committee of the House of Representatives has been holding investigations “in aid of legislation” zeroing on alleged corruption and plunder in the office of Vice President Sara Duterte. The hearings wanted to know how the P125 million was spent by the vice president.

Were it not for the political agenda disguised as honest to goodness exercise in transparency and accountability, the activities of the Quad committee would be worth emulating by our local governments, particularly our provincial government under Gov. Ramon Guico III.

Unfortunately, it could never happen in Pangasinan because the provincial board members who are expected to launch such investigations are themselves part of these like the highly questionable, irregular series of overseas group travels of provincial officials.

There were nine (9) board members, joined by the board secretary, tourism officer and the general services officer for benchmarking with smart cities in the world at the annual Smart City Expo World Congress held in Barcelona, Spain. They claim they attended sessions on “Keynote Session: Majora Carter Infrastructure & Building: How Do Urban Resilience and Talent Retention Connect” (Nov. 5); “Energy & Environment Mobility Dialogue: Elevating Urban Living: Engaging Communities and Integrating Services for a Net Positive Smart City” (Nov. 6); and Keynote Session: Stephanie Hare Enabling Technology (Nov. 7).

(Note: There is not even one city in the Philippines that can claim to be a Smart City for Pangasinan officials to be invited to attend such an expo.  Certainly, not even one among the delegation is an expert on the use of modern technology.)

Then a contingent led by Provincial Administrator Melicio Patague II and composed of two municipal hospital chiefs and department officials (provincial assessor, governor’s consultant, the chief of the provincial disaster risk management office, the provincial jail warden, and a municipal assessor of Labrador were in California to do a benchmarking with the Stanford Hospital University.

(Note: What can two barely equipped municipal hospital chiefs in Pangasinan hope to learn from a modern US hospital that they can’t learn from the St. Luke’s Hospital in BGC, Asian Medical Center in Alabang, The Medical City in Pasig City, three of the country’s best?)

The composition alone of the two group travels reveals the obvious disconnect that cannot justify the group travels as “official” to which costs were paid by public funds.

The provincial auditor must flag these expenses as commissions of graft by public officials under the Guico administration and a matter for the Ombudsman to review.

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