No to corruption in government

The people are angry, and rightfully so.

On the one hand, we have our finance and economic officials saying that the country has slipped into recession due to the pandemic, with the gross domestic product shrinking a record 16.5 percent in the second quarter.

On the other hand, we have reports of massive corruption and abuses by government officials, the mere mention of which is enough to ignite the anger of many Filipinos especially since no less than the President has said that the government has run out of funds to provide aid to the people.

There are now congressional investigations into rampant corruption in PhilHealth, including alleged ghost patients and hundreds of millions worth of unauthorized purchases.

Then recently, House Deputy Speaker LRay Villafuerte called on  Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año to take immediate and forceful action against abuses committed by certain local government executives in the distribution of over P200 billion-worth of cash grants for coronavirus-hit poor families under President Duterte’s Social Amelioration Program (SAP).

In his 5th State of the Nation Address, President Duterte had warned that he would send to jail errant officials found guilty of fraud in connection with the SAP. He admitted that SAP’s implementation was not perfect and said that  some opportunists  have turned the crisis into opportunity.

Last June, Año said that his department had received 452 complaints due to alleged anomalies in connection with the SAP, and about 649 suspects were being investigated due to the complaints. More recently, the DILG chief disclosed that at least 50 baranggay heads are facing preventive suspension over the alleged misuse of SAP funds, as the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) has received 155 criminal complaints against barangay captains accused of SAP anomalies.

The complaints have been submitted to the Ombudsman and Año expects the erring officials to be meted with preventive suspension.

But the allegations of abuses involving the SAP appear to be more pervasive.

Meanwhile, the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability chaired by  Rep. Jose Antonio Sy-Alvarado, has receive similar reports of abuses involving other LGU heads, including one allegedly involving Iriga City Mayor Madelaine Alfelor.

During the hearing, Deputy Speaker Villafuerte presented before the committee evidence to prove his allegations against Alfelor, who he accused, among others, of distributing the SAP grants to unqualified individuals while shutting out several rightful beneficiaries in the city.

Villafuerte pointed out during the committee hearing that P5,000 SAP grants were handed to employees of the University of Northeastern Philippines (UNEP), which he claims is owned by the mayor’s family, even if they do not reside in Iriga City.

According to Villafuerte, there are those who should not have been included in the SAP list, since they are financially capable. He said that a punong barangay who was an ally of Alfelor was included in the SAP payroll together with six of his relatives, showing photos of the luxurious home of the said barangay chief with several SUVs parked in front, as well as evidence showing that the family owns several profitable businesses.

Villafuerte also received copies of affidavits of disgruntled officials and residents of Iriga. There was one barangay head who even wrote President Duterte to complain about the actions of Alfelor and her political allies of excluding from the distribution of social amelioration cards certain barangay officials that the mayor publicly acknowledged to be politically opposed to her. The said barangay chief has charged Alfelor and others before the Iriga City Prosecutor’s Office of grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service in relation to the implementation of the Bayanihan Law.

These allegations are, of course, heard all over. In many areas of the country, there have been many reports of LGU officials excluding qualified beneficiaries from the SAP grant and favoring those who are either related to them or who are their political supporters.

Now, there are growing calls for the preventive suspension of Alfelor and the barangay officials involved for grave misconduct and dishonesty.

For her part, Alfelor told the House committee during the hearing that she had signed a memorandum of agreement with the DSWD to distribute more than P70 billion in SAP money without knowing the distinction between formal and informal workers. She also denied allegations that SAP grants were distributed to UNEP employees, despite at least three teachers of the university having submitted written testimonies that they received the cash aid.

To defend herself, Alfelor claimed that she had no knowledge of these violations because she  was not the one who had approved the SAP payout list.

But DSWD Secretary Rolando Bautista himself made it clear that under the DSWD’s guidelines, the  LGUs were the ones that had the final say as to who can receive the emergency subsidies and that as per the MOA between the DSWD and LGUs, the responsibility of identifying the beneficiaries is with the LGUs.

Meanwhile, Alfelor maintained that all funds were given and successfully distributed to all the qualified Irigueños and were liquidated with the DSWD, and that all the beneficiaries who received the cash grant were validated and verified as part of the 18 million low-income families.

But if now it is being shown that there are unqualified beneficiaries and that there is something wrong with the list drawn up by the city government.

The Iriga case is but one of many allegations of irregularities in the distribution of the SAP. In my area for instance, I know for a fact that so many qualified individuals have not received help from government.

It’s about time the DILG focus on the bigger fish, have them placed on preventive suspension, and then file the necessary cases against them. If there is massive corruption involving the SAP, then the crooks should be punished because they are playing with people’s lives.

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