Who should head BSU?

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March L. Fianza

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- I attended last week a dialogue between DBM Sec. Butch Abad and presidents of state universities and colleges in the Cordillera, but the items taken up in that meeting were not the ones I was expecting.

Their exchange mostly centered on the concerns of presidents regarding their budgets that come from the national government and other matters that need to be resolved with the intervention of the national leadership through his agents.

I was expecting something more. As someone who managed the campaign sorties of PNoy with the campaign slogan “Kung walang corrupt, walangmahirap” that was supposed to result to “Daangmatuwid,” I wanted to hear Sec. Abad ask from the presidents how they are fighting or getting of rid of corruption in their turf.

But then again, tell me if there is any SUC president who would admit the presence of graft and corruption in their school under their watch.

One thing to blame why graft and corruption seem to have become part of life in government service was because not many were being charged in court, or if charged, no one ever went to jail.

Since cases involved the government against a public official or employee, amicable settlements outside the court are possible. I bet there were more areglos done by the parties in the case than penalties that were implemented.

Through print, broadcast and internet media, we learn of more cases that fall under the category, whether the cases were filed in court or not.

The backlog of unresolved cases in the different courts in the country increases daily. Consequently, the number of cases filed in court has overtaken the number of cases that are slowly being heard.

If so, then there are as many “criminals” who are scot –free and who are still drawing their salaries from government, as there are as many pending graft and corruption cases in court.

Not even people who work in any of the three branches of government are exempted here. How often have I heard litigants complain about how their respective judges decided unfairly on their cases?

How often have we heard of people talk about changing their public officials in the legislative and executive departments come election time because they have committed this and that? Yet nobody serves the jail sentences.

And why am I wasting my time grumbling about this? This government started it all. First, when PNoy sat as President, he created the Truth Commission that was eventually shot down by the Supreme Court.

Next, he checked the excessive take home money of people working in several government-owned and controlled corporations.

Sec. Abad’s visit reminded me that government should also look into SUCs. It is time it turns its attention to charging SUC employees who may be found guilty of dishonesty.

There appears to be an impression of an unstoppable growth of bad grass in the SUCs that needs, not mere trimming but weeding.

Such things may not be widely known or seen in plain view by the ordinary passerby but a little scrutiny can bring out unwanted reports. If the national leadership with the long arm of the law cannot check these, people in the SUCs who have the power, although little, can change things for the better.

Not very long ago, heads and allies of certain SUC presidents were accused of favoritism, railroading procedures and putting their people in positions that could have been occupied by more qualified applicants.

Certain SUC presidents were also accused of being indecisive that puts the university in a shaky state.

Together with their cohorts, they were known to have reduced the university as their milking cow by managing the school’s farmlands clandestinely.

For a long time, the public has been mystified why no money has been correctly collected and reported and submitted to the school’s coffers even while people plainly saw that it was making money out of the properties rented or leased to private persons.

And if you ask the property occupants, they will say “agbaybayadak met tiabangko.”

In the selection of who should be next president of BSU, those tasked to vote for the next guy should consider these concerns I mentioned because I am sure it is not only me who wants these issues answered.

If I were one among those who would be choosing who the next president of BSU would be, I would vote for the candidate who does not have a campaign manager who carries a big money bag around.

Reliable sources connected with the school told me that an unscrupulous worker who has been pocketing money from his department has been attempting through his connections to buy the endorsement of the people who would be voting in the selection, in the amount of hundreds of thousands of illegally acquired funds.

If his candidate wins, according to my informant, this guy would continue on with his dirty job in his assignment and the new president who has been chosen because of the money that spread, would of course protect him from scrutiny.

I hope I am only imagining things and I hope the selection for the new president of BSU has not reached a dirty stage. Only those who are hiding something can resort to that.

Long live BSU! – marchfianza777@yahoo.com