Roads and corruption

EDITORIAL

The past weeks in Baguio had been a nightmare for thousands of commuters and motorists who had to bear with the ongoing construction or “repair” of the Loakan and Bokawkan Roads in Baguio.

Their gripes included heavy traffic as a result of the diggings which they said were not necessary considering that the roads were actually in excellent shape before these were dug up to “rehabilitate” these.

According to Department of Public Works and Highways officials, the roads needed to be “rehabilitated” considering these were old and not par with engineering safety standards. DPWH officials also said the “repair” of these roads had been programmed and budgeted by their central office in Manila.

The construction projects are worth millions of pesos taken from taxpayers’ money. It is high time such project proposals should be subjected by the DPWH to public scrutiny before these are bid out. Neutral or outside experts should be allowed to check the veracity of these projects before these are implemented.

This would ensure that taxpayers’ money is used judiciously. If the roads indeed needed honest to goodness rehabilitation then, it should be implemented. But if the intent of these government officials is to rehabilitate these so they can get kickbacks or commissions, then these have to be stopped.

The money of the people which they pay in the form of taxes should be used to make their lives better, not to enrich the pockets of corrupt government officials.

Investigating anomalous cases

There is sense in the proposal of Senate minority leader Alan Peter Cayetano for the government to set up an organized system of investigating issues concerning the past administrations in light of the unraveling Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office scam investigations.

The senator had expressed his disappointment with the slow pace of investigation and the unorganized manner in which the investigations are being conducted.

He said that since there is no Truth Commission, there is nothing to stop the President from creating either a super fact-finding body or a number of fact-finding committees in different departments to gather evidence.

Cayetano said even if a new Ombudsman is appointed, he would still need to have evidence based on facts which will have to come from different agencies and departments.

He also noted that investigations into the PCSO scam and all of the unresolved anomalies of the Arroyo administration need to put closure into these to truly emphasize the difference between the Aquino administration and the past administration.

“The Arroyo administration style of resolving cases was to just to let the issue die over time then later say that the issue is considered closed. But until you know who did the crime, what the crime is and what the perpetrators got, you cannot say that a case is solved,” he explained.

According to Cayetano, it is important for the Aquino administration to show that the Philippine government is capable of putting closure into big graft cases by completely solving the case, not only by closing these.

In this light, the Senate minority leader also called on the administration to conduct a parallel investigation in support of the Senate probe that may take the lead in investigating the alleged PCSO scam.

He said this parallel investigation can be done by the PCSO itself or the bodies outside or apart from the agency itself. As Cayetano said, there can be a more organized way of solving these anomalous cases starting with the PCSO scam.