By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
In the US, if you wanted to join the Mafia and steal big money, really big, you joined the Mafia. In the Philippines, you join the government.
I was sent a link to a video presentation on how our money, the people’s money is being stolen from us, and it was shocking. Apparently, the video was inspired by the hundreds of millions, even billions of pesos just disappearing by designating these as confidential funds. By how these are called, the accounting and auditing of such big funds is so lax, as if there is no accounting at all. The reason? The purposes are confidential so the spending is also confidential. For all we know, the politicians with confidential funds just pocketed the money. That would be considered classified. Not open to public scrutiny.
Back to the said video. It revealed that our congressmen and senators in accounting for the money budgeted for them, which were really big money, will not be accounted at all. There is a long standing policy, adopted also by Congress that money given to them , for instance, as MOOE (maintenance and other operating expenses) are practically not accounted for.
As anybody who ever got employed knows, when you receive money from the office, you will have to liquidate it. How is it done? By giving the details on how it was spent. Proofs? Receipts of course. When given to someone who cannot issue a receipt, before the giving, an immediate superior had to approve it first to make sure it is justified. Such proof of approval is the way to liquidate it.
In the Senate and in Congress, however, there is a policy since 2011 and being followed up to now that the budget of each legislator is liquidated in a way unheard of before. It is by certifying that the amount was spent in pursuance of the functions of the office. That is it. No receipts needed or any other proofs. Just a certification by the senator or the congressman to the effect that the money was used to pursue the functions of the legislator or his office would be enough. Nothing more.
How was that policy started? It was through a resolution introduced by Senator Lacson. The reasoning is the functions of legislators are confidential and the tedious requirements of accounting and auditing procedures are too burdensome to our legislators. Did anybody in the Senate object to the resolution or the adoption of the policy? Nobody.
Then it was adopted by the Congress. Did anybody ever object to it. Nobody. Not even the representatives of party lists. Not even the leftists who are always crying for reforms.
The narrator then compared how American legislators liquidate the funds budgeted for their offices. They really account for everything, up to the last cent. Even parking tickets or receipts are submitted as proof of expenses. Sure, it is tedious but the money of the people is fully accounted for.
To circumvent the tedious process, we, Filipinos came up with a genius way. Just submit a certification by the senator or congressman that it was well spent. That’s it. And hundreds of millions or even billions of the people’s money disappear down the drain, rather, into the pockets of our so-called leaders.
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