Punchline
The lying Kapitans
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
THE barangay kapitans of Dagupan City were not only caught flatfooted by the floods but they have been caught as well with their fingers inside the cookie jar. What’s worse, their folly pointed to a conspiracy inside the mayor’s office (yes, again!) to defraud the city.
I refer to the suspected illegal use of barangay funds intended for clearing of drainage in the communities by the kapitans for their personal use! Now, it can be told, the suspicion appears to be true! After all that hemming and hawing by City Administrator Vlad Mata and Liga ng mga Barangay president Guillermo Vallejos about who spent for their group tour to Singapore, the documents at the Treasurer’s Office finally exposed their insidious scheme.
Fact 1: The sanggunian allocated P100,000 for each of the city’s barangay or a total of P3.1 million for the cleaning of their communities’ drainage.
Fact 2 : The kapitans departed as a tour group last May yet none could show proof that each used personal funds, not city funds, for the tour fare as pointed out by Mr. Mata.
Fact 3. Mr. Vallejos and the kapitans had vehemently denied before and after their Singapore tour that they had received any of the P3.1 M fund. City Treasurer Romelita Alcantara virtually called them liars when she presented a certification that a P3.1 million check dated April 19, 2011 was paid out per Voucher No. 100-11-04-2058, weeks before the Kapitans’ tour group departed
Fact 4: The kapitans in truth eventually only received their individual share of P70,000 after the P30,000 tour fare was deducted by Mr. Vallejos. (or Mr. Mata?) That some of them ended up foregoing cleaning their community’s drainage entirely or partially, is another story.
Fact 5: A number of the barangay books show P100,000, others P70,000 entry of the fund into their books for the purpose of clearing their drainage,. I am told others have none to show at all.
Fact 6: While Treasurer Alcantara certified to the preparation of the check, she did not identify who received the check. She evidently left it to Mr. Mata and Mr. Vallejos to deny or admit to their role in the disposition of the check. She knows who signed for the check but she is not telling. (Finance Sec. Cesar Purisima will be enraged to know someone under him is sabotaging P-Noy’s Matuwid na Daan).
Fact 7: The sanggunian resolution specifically directed that P100,000 be released individually to each barangay kapitan who in turn is required to liquidate the amount released to them by submitting particulars of their drainage cleaning project. But City Budget officer Ildefonso Calimlim, City Accountant Teresita Manaois and Ms. Alcantara knowingly prepared one check amounting to P3.1 million, and not 31 checks for P100,000 each in violation of the ordinance.
Fact 8: The preparation of the single check was authorized by the mayor’s office (by whom can be borne out by the supporting documents for the check preparation) yet Mr. Mata and Mr. Lim were mum on the check release the whole time.
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Unless Messrs. Lim, Mata and Vallejos can present evidence to prove us wrong, this is another clear criminal case committed by accountable public officials in Dagupan with impunity.
First it was the indigent children who were used as alibi to defraud the city government of hundreds of thousands by faking a bidding process for the purchase of basic food commodities intended for a touted feeding program. It allowed crooks in the city hall to pay grossly overpriced goods for a large kickback.
Then came the illegal release of calamity funds to select kapitans deemed allies of Mr. Lim to help in their reelection bid in the 2010 baranagay elections.
Now this illegal disbursement and use of barangay funds by the kapitans for their personal pleasure tour.
Will someone tell me if it’s possible that Mayor Lim, Administrator Mata, City Budget officer Ildefonso Calimlim, Accountant Manaois and Treasurer Alcantara didn’t know of the conspiracy behind each scam? What of the members of the bid and awards committees, namely Virgil Tangco, Eduardo Magno, Atty. Roy Laforteza and Engr. Nestor de Vera? City Nutrition Officer Leah Aquino and Executive Assistant Maximo Alexis Tan?
Curiously, the DILG officer in the city, Mr. Roderick Dawis, was never heard to have filed a report to DILG Sec. Jesse Robredo about these cases for the appropriate filing of administrative cases against whose names and signatures appeared on the official documents used for the scams. Was he part of the cabal? The indicators are, he is unless he can show that he did his job reporting the irregularities committed by the city hall occupants.
It’d be interesting too to find out what City Auditor Ofelia Celi had written in her 2010 report. Were these scams written in her report? Did she have any recommendation? I’m sure COA Commissioner Heidi Mendoza, a dear friend, will know sooner or later.
To these officials, in case they haven’t noticed, the rate of conviction now in both the Sandiganbayan and Ombudsman is notably increasing under the aegis of P-Noy’s slogan.”Walang mahirap kung walang corrupt. Hint-hint!
My unsolicited advice to them: Magbago na kayo if it isn’t too late for you yet! The people now await how the Daongan ed Dawel episode will be played out, i.e., and who the bidas and contra-bidas are this time.
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TOP COLUMNIST? There always comes a time in one’s life when one gets a boost unexpectedly from a least expected source.
This happened to me recently when one lazy night, surfing the web, I did a Google on blogs about the PUNCH, media links, etc. One title caught my attention “Top Political Columnists” (www.perfunctory.org).
On top of the page were pictures of certainly distinguished looking journalists, and below it read:
“When you want to read about an opinion about politics, you might want to turn to columnists who actually research their topics, unlike your loud-mouthed Uncle Joe. Turning to the folks who are actually well-read and smart, you will get a more informed piece of information about the things going on in the world, even if you don’t agree with their perspective.”
Then it listed “Political Columnists you need to read” with the qualifier “Past and present columnists…”. A cursory view indicated the list included columnists mostly from publications based in USA, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Canada, Ireland, India, Russia, Israel and South Africa.
I wondered who among the popular columnists in the country were listed. It had one, and the name listed my father’s name, or so I thought. It took me a few more seconds to realize it was my full name…with my middle initial and the “Jr.” appended to it! To say I was shocked is an understatement. Naturally, my first reaction was to conclude that the website is likely administered by a Pangasinense who reads us. But I saw no indication except that it claimed that the list is copyrighted.
A further search led me to Newswealth.com…and it featured the same list under the category “Columnists”.
I certainly have no idea who is or are behind Perfunctory.Org and Newswealth.com but nonetheless it is gratifying to know that someone out there acknowledges one’s work for a reason.
Thank you Perfunctory.Org and Newswealth.com ! Now, back to reality…
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