OVER the past week, Congress could have easily passed its version of the 2024 national budget without much ado until media reported Commission on Audit’s problems in seeking accountability for the hundreds of millions of confidential funds in the name of Vice President Sara Duterte in 2022.

Fortunately, House Speaker Martin Romualdez mustered enough political will to reject the submitted budget request of VP Duterte of hundreds more of confidential funds in the name of “peace”.

If our governor and mayors are listening and read into the action and message of Speaker Romualdez, it means the government clearly sees what the “confidential funds” or so called “development funds” (in local lingo) are, and how they are being used and abused. Because as the term suggests – it is secret.

But it is no secret that the yearly allocation of such funds, also known as the “pork barrel” in local government context (but outlawed in the national context) now liberally referred to as “development funds”, has long been abused, and continues to be abused to this day.  Yet wonders of all wonders, no mayor or governor one has been called out by local auditors to this day.

COA may be doing wonders in the national level but what it is not doing in the local level is almost criminal. No expended “development fund” of any governor or mayor was ever flagged as highly irregular by a provincial, city/town auditor.  No wonder, then National Treasurer Leonor Briones (under Estrada administration) minced no words when she said the level of corruption at the local level if cumulatively added, is far worse than at the national level. It’s nothing like what the public perceives.

If perhaps even only 50% of development funds of mayors and the governors which traditionally are far bigger than other combined line items of departments, are dutifully audited, the staggering amount will surely shock and cause outrage in our communities.

So, consider debates and discussions about exposed confidential funds in Congress as a drop in the bucket.

But begin to wonder what your local town /city auditor has done to preserve your local government’s funds. Let us prod our councilors to demand for copies of annual audited reports and demand how the development funds were reportedly spent.

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