EDITORIAL - Manicure scam

There’s a fertilizer fund scam. Is there also a manicure scam? Residents of a coastal town in Pampanga are shaking their heads in dismayed disbelief after learning that 200 fishermen in their community supposedly received livelihood kits in February 2010 from a government agency. The contents of the kits: manicure equipment and a training video.

Together with a training program that the recipients supposedly underwent, the livelihood assistance cost P2,000 per beneficiary, according to personnel of the Office of the Ombudsman, who reportedly went to the town of Masantol to investigate if the kits were actually delivered.

Town officials noted that it was not the first time that their community was listed as a beneficiary of what turned out to be ghost projects. Hagonoy was also listed as a recipient of Malampaya funds in 2009, but no money reached the town.

If city residents can receive financial assistance from their congressmen for fertilizers and seeds, some individuals apparently thought Hagonoy fishermen could use “mani-pedi” livelihood kits. Ombudsmen probers did not identify the source of the personal grooming kits to the people of Hagonoy, but whoever was responsible for the livelihood project must be made to explain what looks like a ghost procurement. 

The public can assist anti-graft probers by providing leads on other anomalous government projects. The fertilizer fund scandal and pork barrel scam allegedly using bogus non-government organizations show the many creative ways by which those entrusted with people’s money can betray public trust. There are surely many other ways by which tax money has been misused.