In school they taught us that in a democracy there are three pillars to strengthen the foundation of a nation. It’s very elementary. Executive, legislative and judiciary. It can be likened to a tripod. One leg not working, a nation will collapse. The question now is which of these three pillars is collapsing? Or all the legs in the tripod are already weak or wicked. Good subject for serious commentary.
Let’s start this way. ‘Justice delayed is justice denied’. ( Sobrang tagal naman talaga). Remember when President Bongbong Marcos Jr. spewed the words, MAHIYA NAMAN KAYO in his State of the Nation address speech in the House of Representatives. Bakit hanggang ngayon konti pang nasa kalaboso na senador o congressman? Yung KAYO means maraming marami sila. Almost all of them snatched the money intended for the poor. That’s already public knowledge.
These thieves in barong and expensive suits spoiled their families, their kids now popularly known as Nepo babies, with high priced luxury cars and signature items which price tags are beyond reach of ordinary families. Divine Justice is too long in coming too, it seems. But how long we can wait and be satisfied to see these evil people behind bars. Can the prosecutors please shorten the arm of the law. The Ombudsman seemingly is not objective but selective.
‘In the public mind, fairly or rightly, the most guilty are former House Speaker Martin Romualdez and former Senate President Chiz Escudero ( both for their leadership roles in congress which converted into a colossal criminal syndicate): Rep.Elizaldy Co for running away with P86 billion of taxpayers money.’ The most guilty are the lawmakers in cahoots with certain agencies like the Commission on Audit and the Department of Budget and Management.
I will keep repeating this. I remember writing earlier the modus operations in the biddings of government projects as detailed to me by a friend contractor. Here’s how. Formal biddings are done on offices of the agencies and presided by Bids and Awards Committee ( BAC). In most cases, the wining bidder is already known and winning bid price. That’s upon the instruction of the greedy senator or the congressman who will impose 25 to 30 % of the total project cost if it is a flood control project. ( Nauuna pa silang kumikita, sabi ng mga Discaya). The standard operating procedure or SOP is ten to twelve percent on buildings, bridges and flyovers. (Paleo sila pad sa mga ghost projects).
Another arrangement is for the winning bidder to set aside three percent of the bid price of the project and equitably distributed to the participants. A certain amount is also set aside for the agency officials and personnel.The biggest slices are reserved for the top brass at the main office, then to the director if it is in Department of Public Works and Highways. Then the district engineer and down the line that will include a corrupt Commission on Audit auditor. It’s a syndicate at work under the sponsorship of government.
Let me emphasize that under the procurement law, a tarpaulin which details the project must be posted on a strategic area where it will feature what is the nature of the project, starting date and completion, the amount, the CONTRACTOR, the source of funds etc. etc. This is done inorder to inform the taxpayers where their money is spent. Remember that those projects you see are not coming from private pockets of congressmen or senators. That’s yours and mine. What’s is unfortunate people are blindly believing that we owe the solons a debt of gratitude. That’s sad.
