Stronger hands vs corruption

After a month-long Christmas break, lawmakers of the 17th Congress are back in session starting today. As per the jointly approved calendar, both chambers will conduct their session for one month only. This is the third and last regular session of the present Congress.

As a continuing body, only 12 Senators will remain in office while the other 12 members of the Senate are graduating from their second and last term in office. At least six of them are up for re-election in the coming May 13 mid-term elections.

On the other hand, all members of the House of Representatives are either retiring on their third and last term in office or are up for re-election. Several of them are running for the Senate while others are eyeing local government posts.

Thus, the Senate and the House are set to adjourn again on February 9 to embark on their respective campaigns for the coming May 13 mid-term elections. 

Effectively, the 17th Congress have only four weeks to wrap up and complete the passage into law of the remaining bills in the priority legislative agenda as endorsed to them by President Rodrigo Duterte from day one of his administration in June 2016. Practically, we have a lame duck Congress to churn out new laws out of a number of these bills that are already in advanced stages of the legislative mills in both chambers. Once approved and ratified by Congress, only these bills have great chances to reach the desk of President Duterte for approval and signing into law.

Our lawmakers must work double time on pending bills if these would ever see the light of day before this Congress adjourns sine die on June 7. But the most urgent one that needs the approval into law is the proposed 2019 General Appropriations Act (GAA) bill that remain pending in Congress. This, despite President Duterte certified it as urgent administration measure.

By virtue of the country’s 1987 Constitution, the 2018 GAA got re-enacted starting January 1 this year following the failure of Congress to pass into law the 2019 GAA before the end of last year. In lieu of this, Congress approved Joint Resolution No. 3 before they adjourned last month to extend the validity for capital outlays and maintenance and other operating expenses.

Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Benjamin Diokno, however, clarified the Joint Resolution does not cover payment of the fourth tranche of salary increase for all national government workers. This will include President Duterte who is supposed to get an increase of almost P102,000 in his monthly salary this year. His pay will go up from P298,083 to P399,739.

The President has often complained in jest that his salary was not even enough for the upkeep of his two families. He could only thank his immediate predecessor, former president Benigno Simeon “PNoy” Aquino III for this pay hike. This year’s pay hike completes the fourth four-year salary upgrading program in the bureaucracy contained under Executive Order 201, which PNoy signed on Feb. 19, 2016 because lawmakers failed to pass the proposed Salary Standardization Law (SSL)-4.

So, if there is anyone who would like to see the immediate passage into law of the 2019 GAA bill, it should be President Duterte himself.

But more than the delayed hike of the presidential monthly salary, Diokno, however, is more worried on the delayed approval of the 2019 GAA would push back anew scheduled implementation of new projects and programs of the Duterte administration.

Now entering his mid-term this year in office at Malacañang Palace, President Duterte is apparently getting exasperated at the slow pace by which his administration’s priority infrastructure projects and programs are stalled by the rules and procedures in the bureaucracy. Unfortunately, the Commission on Audit (COA) has become the subject of the presidential pique. In one of his extemporaneous remarks, the Chief Executive jokingly told his audience he would “torture” COA auditors for making his governance more difficult than what they should do.

The ex-Mayor of Davao City, however, has a simplistic view on the COA’s role in the whole scheme of things. Or perhaps, COA has become a convenient scapegoat by certain laggard administration officials when they got the presidential call of attention over delayed implementation of projects and programs of government?

 If there is pre-audit being conducted, then this adds to the perennial red tape problem in government. But as far as I’ve gathered, the COA no longer requires pre-audit but they only do post-audit in all government agency transactions.

So where does the presidential pique on COA come from?

The annual audit that COA does is crucial to find and establish accountabilities and liabilities of government officials and employees, especially in the use and handling of public funds. For someone who is staunchly against graft and corruption, President Duterte should find COA as a dependable institution to go after scoundrels in government.

In fact, Malacañang released last week Executive Order (EO) 73 that President Duterte signed on December 28 last year expanding the mandate of the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC). EO 73 now allows the Chief Executive to assume jurisdiction over graft complaint against any of his presidential appointees  “at any stage of the process.”

EO 73 further amended EO 43 which created the three-man PACC in 2017. The PACC was tasked to look into allegations of excessive lifestyles and graft and corruption activities, and then recommend punishment against those officials which could range from suspension to removal from office.

Under the latest executive fiat, President Duterte likewise empowered the PACC to recommend the filing of charges by the Ombudsman against officials they find to have committed corruption. Previously, the PACC could only refer cases. The PACC is now also mandated to look into officials who violate the Anti-Red Tape Law.

Obviously, President Duterte wants stronger hands to deal with corruption in government. But could PACC do it?