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Aphrodisiac Issue
Even before arraingment, charges that the well-heeled Ampatuans wangled “VIP” treatment in their General Santos jail erupted. “The rich are unlike the poor,” Ernest Hemingway wrote. “They have more money." Wall Street’s Bernard Madoff squirreled more loot than the Ampatuans. Jailed for 150 years, Madoff isn’t getting kid-gloves treatment. Such contrasts exacerbate fury, over the Maguindanao massacre“. The focus, for now, is on lady-judge Joceyln Solic-Reyes. She took over from a male colleague who “begged off.” These shoved into backburners, plunder of Internal Revenue Allotments (IRA) and other funds in Maguindanao. “Most politicians in the area consider the IRA as their own personal funds, a reward for their political victories,” North Cotabato vice-governor Manny Pinol wrote in Inquirer. “Misuse of the IRA” in Maguindanao and Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao,“is public knowledge.” That’s news to Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez. She onverted a constitutional graft-busting body into a bunker for her patrons: the President, First Gentleman and their cronies, e.g the Ampatuans.” Ms Gutuierrez didn’t act on high profile cases, says Philippine Human Development Report (PHDR) 2009. These included: the P2billion Mega-Pacific election computer scam to Joc-Joc Bolante’s P728 million fertilizer scandal. Will Ms Gutierrez crack down on Maguindanao? Don’t hold your breath. The Ampatuans gave her madrina 193,938 votes over Fernando Poe’s 59,892. In a “soft state”, political gratitude is a virtue. IRAs are local governments’ share in taxes collected. IRAs exceeded P166 billion a year back. They account for 67 centavos, out of every local tax peso, says the Commission on Audit. It was 40 centavos a decade earlier. IRAs did repair decrepit town halls and enabled poverty-strapped provinces, like Sulu and Basilan, to keep heads above water. Out of every tax peso, 20 centavos were to be earmarked, for the "20 Percent Development Fund". This addresses “unmet basic human needs”: potable water, sanitation, preventive health care, nutrition, etc. Wisely used, “IRAs can trigger growth," noted Viewpoint ( Jan 30, 2008) "They won’t root out massive poverty. They stoke rising expectations.” But “family dynasties bankroll just about everything with IRAs: from honoraria, fiesta dances to motorcycles, etc. The Catholic Bishops Social Action Secretariat flayed IRA funded “observation” trips”, i.e..junkets. In private industry, those who spend three bucks on wages to deliver a peso worth of services or product are fired. But over a five year period, LGUs spent, on average, 74 centavos out of every tax peso for salaries, COA found. Personnel service expenditures “are higher than officially reported,” World Bank and Asian Development Bank note. Maguindanao sliced an IRA P555 million chunk in 2005. That bloated to P633 million the year after, Philippine Center for Journalism reported. How did Amaputans use their IRAs? Almost nothing went for health. The National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) reports the number of Maguindano's health stations stagnated at 163, from 2000 to 2006. Nor did the province add a single school since 2001. PHDR 2009 found that 44 out of 100 Maguindanao residents were “no-read-no write.” In contrast, only four out of every 100 Tarlacenos are “functional illiterates”.In Maguindanao, 46 out of every 100 drink from open easily-contaminated wells. Nine do in Occidental Mindoro. So did IRAs go for the over 1,000 guns unearthed in Maguindanao caches? No? Overtime pay for backhoe operators then? No? How about 24 mansions plus Jacuzzi baths for the governor’s office? Looting didn’t stop with IRAs. In it’s 2008 report, COA complained it could “not ascertain validity of the provincial government’s claim it had P107 million deposited in bank.Nor could COA verify the existence of properties and assets worth P345 million. The year before, auditors could not confirm P4.07 million in cash reported in banks and P547.6 million in properties. In it’s 2009 report, COA reveals the same sordid pattern. This pattern of unverifiable bank accounts, as well as questionable property and equipment tallies, crops up in town after town, from Buluan, Datu Abdullah Sangki, Barira, Datu Unsay o Datu Sadi Ampatuan. LGUs should match IRAs with counterparts, UN suggests. “Providing equity to grant" will reverse the slump intodole-outs. Link IRA releases to precise “performance criteria”> Currently, theytre pegged them to static land area and population, Asian Development Bank adds. “No action, no shekels.” Like aphrodisiacs, IRA doles are habit-forming.Thus, 16 cities would slice into the IRA pie, not by increased tax collection. Instead, they’d sneak in thru the backdoor. A Supreme Court “final and executory decision” -- that is not final and executory, the same Court said without blinking. LGUs that curb malnutrition, provide safe water, improve health services, expand basic education should be rewarded, UN suggests. Those who flub ought to be dunned. Dock from IRA cash advances what local officials haven’t settled. Unliquidated advances now exceed a staggering P1.21 billion. Apply the Anti-Graft law by prohibiting officials from dipping into IRAs for their honoraria. Did we need a Maguindanao massacre to drive that lesson home? Email: juanlmercado@gmail.com |
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