Gutting the 7th commandment

By JUAN L. MERCADO, juan_mercado77@yahoo.com
February 1, 2013

Have the “10 Commandments” been watered down into the “10 Suggestions”? That’s what today’s brawl over Congress Resolution No 10 – that auditors be barred from peering\ into legislators spending – is all about.

Hit the rewind button. Senators adopted CR10 on Aug. 24, 2011. This castrated the Commission on Audit of it’s constitutional power to check how senator and congressmen handled your tax shekels. It also exempted members from submitting receipts, vouchers, etc. They’d get away with a legislator’s certification.

The House scrambled to catch up on Feb. 1, 2012. Walang hindi nagbibighani, kapag ang salapi ay kumakalansing,” a Tagalog proverb explains. “When money jingles, everyone is attracted.”

Congressional scramble for unaudited funds erupted into scandal when Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile gift wrapped, for Christmas, P1.6 million checks, culled from peso “maintenance and other operating expenses”. He doled that to 18 friendly senators.

That’s legalized theft, snarled Senator Miriam Santiago – who returned her P250 thousand peso check. From 2008 to 2013, MOOE bolted from P759 million to P1.57 billion, just in the Senate.

An audit will document the same profligacy with taxpayers pesos in the Lower House. Congressmen too scribble a “special power of attorney” or SPA and – Bingo! Hard-earned taxpayer pesos floods in for salaries and allowances for untallied staff. Does a congressman have 10 employees? Maybe 40? CR10 bars taxpayers from asking.

The stink became so offensive, Senator Panfilo Lacson suggested in a radio interview: “The Senate needs an enama to purge the toxins. But it needs to act". Follow my example, he prodded colleagues. My office staff has been ordered to open all our books.”

“Did the man say all?”, Inquirer’s View point asked. That would include Lacson admitting he authored CR10. The resolution was “was not in our consciousness” when it was passed, Lacson mumbled. Adoption of his “brainchild” slipped thru “unnoticed amid many others that the Senate approved”. Is this selective amnesia? Or is it “CYA” otherwise known as covering your ass?.

Lacson, who spurned pork barrel allocations, said he wouldn’t mind if his handiwork were to be junked. Is this a ruthless Saul turned into a evangelizing Paul?. Nonsense, snap Lacon’s critics who quote the Ilocano proverb: Ti uwak waray digos, nagsiti latta. ”Although it bathes, the crow remains black”.

Such abuse does not occur in a vacuum. “Poverty is inextricably linked to corrupt practices that are deeply rooted in society,” says the earlier Ateneo de Naga University’s book, “Cross Sectoral Study of Corruption in the Philippines”. Indeed the monstrosity of corruption seems utterly difficult to capture in a single illustration” (Like CR10?)

"Perceptions of corruption color vocabulary", the book researchers found. They also shape imagery. Four symbols were seated into minds, especially of students, urban poor and NGOs. These were: crocodile (buaya); a contagious disease (isang-sakit na makakahawa); octopus with tentacles (galamay); and roots (ugat) of a tree.

Local parlance reflects this infection. These include: Utos sa taas (“Order from above”) to tea-money: “may pangmeryenda ka ba dyan?” (“Speed money” greases). And indigenous folk dub grafters: maro – not trustworthy.

Utang na loob reciprocity is not seen a bribery but fulfillment of a social obligation. “Opportunities for graft are created when people tolerate the unpunished corrupt. So do wide discretionary powers” (as in CR10 ). The book says it is essential to stip glamour from the corrupt and instill transparency mechanisms, Chairperson Grace Pulido Tan seems determined to do just that. COA is starting a “no-holds-barred audit”, in line with it’s constitutional mandate, she informed the Senate. Tan asked auditors be given access to all relevant documents in a letter to the chairman of accounts – by happenstance, Lacson.

If you can’t beat them, join them. In a caucus, they agreed to scrap “certification”. Senators must now file receipts, vouchers, etc., announced – not as author of the reviled CR10 – but as chair of the committee on accounts.

Enrile informed Speaker Feliciano Belmonte of the Senate decision to bail out, Lacson added. “It’s the Lower House call if they will waive [the resolution] or rescind it. But for us, no ifs and buts. The Senate will comply.“

Senator Aquilino Pimentel, meanwhile, filed Senate Resolution 930. This seeks to curb an epidemic of 35 congressional “oversight committees” that chew up another P400 million yearly.

The committees sprawl from biofuels, labor, disaster risk reduction to special purpose vehicles. Merge their duties with that of appropriate legislative committees, Pimentel sensibly proposed.

COA’s Grace Pulido Tan’s effort to bring to light what crooks in legislative robes tried to hide will be sabotaged at every turn. Vultues do not let go of carrion lightly. Indeed, CR10 is only the latest devise whereby they turned both houses of Congress, meant for statesmen, into a den of thieves. They swear by Napoleon Bonparte’s axiom: “Money has no fatherland.”

If Tan’s audit succeeds in ripping down CR10 blinders, she’ll stop Congress’ gutting of the 7th Commandment: “Thou shall not steal.” Tan will enter history as one of COA’s giants. She will also ensure our grandchildren will be spared the scourge of “dark money”.