Human pestilence as horribly harmful as Covid-19

By Al S. Mendoza

 

GOVERNMENT and governed must work hand in hand in the name of success.

Said in another way, leaders and followers are engines of progress if harnessed properly.

This should be the mode amid the current crisis.

Who compose government?

Basically, they are the President of the republic, senators, representatives, governors, mayors, barangay captains and kagawads.

The governed are our people.

President Duterte fires the main directions for operations designed to make life better for us the people.

The President’s men, led by his Cabinet members, will cascade down his directives to all units of government activity.

Eventually, it would be the barangay captains and their kagawads who will execute the nitty gritty.

In short, the barangay leaders always play the end game.

But, alas, what have we been seeing, hearing, lately?

In the present dispensation of helping our brethren cope with the coronavirus pandemic, corruption has been rearing its ugly head—almost with impunity.

With our top leaders from Malacanang wracking their brains out in trying to uplift the morale of our marginalized citizens, we see some of our barangay officials stealing government money outright.

Some kapitans and even kapitanas are caught slashing money, if not stashing all of the moolah, intended for their constituents.

Horrendously, they are in cahoots with some of their kagawads.

Their mode of operation is they list “ghost” beneficiaries and then pocket the money due the non-existent barangay residents.

Others write down their relatives as recipients, depriving legitimate beneficiaries of the precious SAF (social amelioration fund) dole outs.

One “beneficiary” of financial aid in Metro Manila was the mother of a barangay official.

Worst, the mother is a resident of another barangay.

About four barangay officials in the NCR (National Capital Region) had confessed to the crime, with two of them saying they had returned the loot and had “really no intention of keeping the money.”

But Martin Dino, the no-nonsense Interior official, said he was not buying the story.

“We will still prosecute them,” he said.

As I write this, several barangay officials, some of them residing in Bulacan, are facing charges of “stealing government money” intended as aid to our people in dire need of help.

If doctors, nurses and many more health workers are our so-called front liners in our fight against the coronavirus, our barangay officials also play the same role in providing help to our barangay populace.

For them to even pocket one peso from what’s due each barangay resident is already a crime equivalent to stealing a millions pesos from the government coffers.

That has always been the problem with some, if not many, of our supposed leaders: They love to rob people’s money.

A human pestilence as horribly harmful as Covid-19.

When will this virus-like plague end, only God knows.

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