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There are several articles and references to the above subject elsewhere in this forum to help you in a more indepth understanding of the issues in this controversy.

The recent pronouncements of the powers that be on the P168M heavy equipment bidding declaring it to be above-board came as no surprise. Rather than tackle the issues and resolve them on its merits, the defenders chose to obfuscate matters by dwelling on technicalities and personalities.

As expected the integrity of the responsible parties were extolled and brought to fore as though believing in them bore the imprimatur of truth . The protestant’s allegations were relegated to the background casting doubt on its legal standing and status  which lay the groundwork for an outright denial of the issues raised.

Clever it may seem but not outright convincing.  Reflective of the attitude of the masters they purportedly serve, our leaders have become callous and insensitive to public calls for transparency and accountability. What has happened to our values as a people?

It gives me goosebumps whenever I hear our leaders talk about corruption and a graft-ridden governance. Need we go elsewhere to feel it? True, we may have projects left and right courtesy of our Palace Benefactor but these do not oblige us to them.If indeed they are true to form then it is just natural that they perform their jobs for what else would they be doing?

These projects are rewards for being sycophants and all and for turning a blind eye on the excesses of the national leadership. Nowhere in our history have we been looked upon so lowly as a people than now. Rather than be proud to be  a Filipino sometimes it is embarrassing when taken in the context of a nation of servants and the corrupt!

But in the end we all have ourselves to blame. Rather than stand up against Goliath we cower in fear to fight  the high and mighty. It takes more than teeth and balls to stand up to our leaders and press for the truth. We are living in a repressed democracy where the powerful and corrupt continue to lord it over us.

Despite glaring evidences of graft we refuse to see and  are led to believe otherwise.
Sometimes longing for divine intervention in any form seem to be our last glimmer of hope!

Elections are just around the corner and in the days ahead, we’re sure to see a mad scramble of men and women posing for the cameras, clutching babies, kissing elderly people and mingling with the simple folk. Such is a typical scene in Philippine politics as re-electionists and would-be candidates gather round to muster public support.

In a country where statesmanship is equally synonymous to showmanship an astute use of media propaganda is considered a plus. Politicians are media savvy and with a clever combination of  money and force, some people have managed to keep themselves in office for as long as it takes.

Our country has a lot of stringent election laws yet our politicians have mastered the art of  working on its fringes. Electoral expenditures are supposed to be a meager sum but each political exercise sees  candidates spending well into the millions! Every election we see rampant vote buying  apart from the cheating and we’ve seen the costs fly.

It is part and parcel of our political exercise that voters have become immune, unmindful of its ill effects to our democratic institutions. Our  leaders have cleverly branded the monetary rewards as loyalty incentives taking the notoriety out of a bribe and our people have callously accepted such reality.

To get elected into office one has to buy his way in. Irregardless of how qualified one is without money he is sure to lose.  There are a few exceptions where money cannot overcome the tide of public outrage and anger, but in our vast political  landscape this is an obscure scenario.

Much to our chagrin, the very same people whom we vote into office plunder our public coffers. This is a sad reality and a vicious cycle in our rotten system for we deserve the leaders we choose,  sometimes thieves masquerading as public servants!

We take pride in our leaders who work so hard for projects and we feel obligated to them.
We commend them for their efforts at getting our roads paved, bridges built and our farms irrigated. We exhort praises upon them and we owe them our votes and loyalty and we believe in them.

But shouldn’t they all be doing their jobs and working, for which reason they profess to seek public office in the first place? Come to think of it, we do not owe them anything. If you and I were elected we would have done  the same .Work feverishly, for we know what rewards are in store. When our leaders finish their terms of office and exit politics we can say for certain  that they have much to live off for a lifetime.


This is the hypocrisy in our political system. People get elected into office and walk off a thousand times richer than you and I. Just look around and you’ll understand what I mean. The very few good men who survived, have their principles and integrity to live on. A remarkable achievement knowing  they had to fight their own demons  while in office.


Despite the well-paved roads, colossal bridges and irrigation facilities our leaders laboriously sought for the public good has our lot improved? Can the average citizen
claim a remarkable improvement in his living condition?

Our country is rich ,blessed with abundant natural resources . But why are our people poor and our politicians rich? We are the biggest Christian nation in Asia but we are the most corrupt. The Filipino is skilled, industrious and adept at a lot of things yet our country is lagging far behind its neighbors.

Looking at the stark reality may lead us into desperation. But despair not for hope may  be not far ahead. As you gaze upon your children in their sleep, immerse yourself in deep reflection.

The hypocrisy could very well live into our generation but shield our children’s innocence from it. As the time comes for us to cast our vote, think long and hard and think ahead.Their future is in our hands!
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A sizeable chunk of our national budget goes to the DPWH and the much vaunted economic stimulus package is to be spent on infrastructure and public works programs. The idea is that government spending on infrastructure programs like farm to market roads will spur development in the countrysides.

This is a noble effort to jumpstart the economy in the face of  a global financial crisis.
The government has to counter the ill effects of  mass layoffs and reduced remittances by our workers abroad and a slow business environment. It is believed that such action by government will cushion the impact of the crisis to our fragile economy.

But will it work?  Has it ever worked ? In the light of what has been exposed by the World Bank in its report on the alleged irregularities in the implementation of contracts for roads and other infrastructure it has funded over the years, this leaves much room for doubt.

Different international agencies that monitor corruption has put the Philippines on the top of the list , a huge embarrassment to our country and a big slap on the face to our leaders. And yet, despite the outcry that followed such damaging revelations by the World Bank, our  politicians are scrambling to put together an economic stimulus package that addresses the same concerns.

Our leaders, it seems have become expert road builders and highway engineers and you can glean on how our congressmen appropriate their “pork funds.” Your  guess is as good as mine but in a ratio of  proportions, you’re  likely to see more roads than hospitals.

This partiality towards concrete highways,” farm to pocket roads” and irrigation systems has its reasons. Unlike vertical structures that can be easily checked and monitored for cost overruns these do not. Horizontal projects reap more profits than buildings and in our rotten system of payoffs and kickbacks, the returns to our politicians are generous.
Did you ever wonder why our cement prices are so high?

Government is a big spender and it loves to spend even bigger. Not contented with
the usual infrastructure , our leaders prefer mega projects. Hence we have mega roads, mega bridges as well as mega dams and mega airports. Everything seems to be on a larger scale. The more government spends, the more our leaders earn. No wonder we have a national budget into the trillions!

Over the years our Presidents have outspent each other and we have seen our foreign debt balloon into the billions of dollars since we gloriously kicked the great dictator out of the Palace. But has our lot improved? We’ve seen a diaspora of our citizens, struggling to get work in foreign lands and yet what have our leaders done? If not to extol these workers as modern day heroes, nothing.

Our leaders have done nothing to stem the tide of  migration  by providing better living conditions in our own land. Going around the country ,what do we see? Huge expenditures for infrastructure. We spend so much to develop the countryside  by providing  farmers access to markets for their products through supposedly good roads and other agricultural inputs but where do these go? If not in the pockets of some politicians then to powerful undersecretaries and people close to those in power.

Corruption in our country has become institutionalized and it is all over. It has become a way of life for people holding juicy positions in government, elected or not. The average citizen has resigned his  fate to the whims and caprices of those in power.

Politics has become more business than public service and the phrase public servant rings a hollow bell. People enter politics for a whole lot of noble reasons but one thing is sure , most if not all get out rich somehow.

This is the sad reality of today , where money turns the wheels of politics it is virtually impossible to escape its stranglehold. This is the sad  plight of our country, a far cry from the vision of our national heroes. Lest we do nothing we shall forever remain in its bondage.

The notorious Nazi propagandist, Joseph Goebbels remarked,”that a lie told a thousand times over becomes truth”. In this day and age of scams, scandals and plunder of public coffers, government propagandists rush in frantic defense of the actions of our public officials, oftentimes bending the law to suit their own interests.

Philippine laws are not alacking, and we have so many In the disbursement of public funds we have many government agencies to act as watchdogs yet somehow many transactions pass scrutiny.

Ordinary citizens already burdened by the problems of daily life seem oblivious to the affairs of government. With scandal after scandal,and  an incessant spate of congressional and senate inquiries that often produce insignificant results, we are faced with a weary public.

The average Filipino of today has to contend with making ends meet. To make things worse the global financial crisis has taken its toll in our fragile economy by way of job lay-offs, lower remittances from our OFWs and high prices of basic goods. These factors along with a host of others have sadly made the ordinary citizen numb to issues that do not directly affect him 

It is this seeming lack of concern and attitude that allows our public officials to get away with their excesses and misuse of public funds in the first place.  We have not risen to a level of awareness typical of citizens in a mature democracy. The economic realities of day to day living has unfortunately prevented us from doing so and to act in unison as a people.

This is why the spirit of EDSA was lost and the corrupt and powerful stand unchecked.Yet hope may not be far after all.

On the national level we have seen the likes of Jun Lozada exposing the ZTE-Broadband Deal, met with a fiery enthusiasm at first, but whose uproar was silenced by a clever use of propaganda to drown the issues. The rice crisis blew up in everyone’s faces and generated more noise than the bombshell that was ZTE.

And why? Because people were more concerned with their daily staple and how to survive a 24-hour day. Not that our people are lacking in priorities that they have become oblivious to other concerns but in a hierarchy of values survival often takes precedence. Such has become the sad state of our country today.

There are no masters if there are no slaves and years of subjugation by our own leaders are to blame. Pres. Quezon said it quite right “ I would rather have a country run like hell by Filipinos than a country run like heaven by the Americans, because however bad a Filipino government might be, it can always be improved”

Decades later, here we are.We need not go far to see where we are now. Without vigilance and awareness of things in government we can never be freed from this bondage The time has come for all good men to stand up and aid their country. We, the public should demand transparency and accountability by our government officials.

Quite interestingly, in the local level, in response to address the issue of irregularity in the conduct of bidding for the 168-M heavy equipment purchase the Provincial Board found itself in a quandary such that a new Committee on Public Accountability had to be created. The existing committees in the Board had none appropriate enough to handle the issue.

Such mindset is reflective of our general insensitivity towards such concern which obviously is not top in our priority list. Nonetheless, bringing this to everyone’s attention may help achieve a level of awareness necessary to keep our public officials in check.

Amidst the furor generated by the World Bank expose of extensive corruption in government related contracts, we now find ourselves in the midst of allegations of irregularities in the bidding for a 168-M  heavy equipment purchase by the Provincial Government, the largest single purchase ever.Recent news articles in the local dailies have presented both sides of the controversy and  heightened the public's awareness to issues that concern good governance.

Reading through both sides of the controversy, one can conclude that indeed the whole bidding process  lacked transparency and did not reflect the competitive spirit of a public bidding.Pronouncements from Capitol in defense of the proceedings  leave more questions than answers.

Reading  the Chronicle Editorial in last Sunday's issue,  calling for ordinary citizens to band together and  stand up against corruption has prompted me to write in condemnation of such abuse of authority in the dispensation of public funds.The 6.4M unliquidated cash advances of City Hall officials has created much noise but this pales in comparison to the 168-M purchase if left unchecked.I am sure that many share my sentiments in silent condemnation of such excesses by government, but are just too shy to express their indignation.

The economic ills that befall our country today is not just an offshoot of the world financial crisis but largely due to widespread corruption in government. Politics has turned out to be good business and people who run for public office are making a career out of it rather than do so for public service.

The ugly head of corruption has again appeared in our midst and our beloved Bohol is not spared from its evils.Now is the time for all good citizens to stand in righteous indignation of such acts. Calling on all brave descendants of DAGOHOY!