‘Sibak, sibak, sibak’

Let’s recall what he said in June 2016 shortly after being elected president — a declaration of an unbending stance against the rot that eats at the government and what he would do at first hearing or smell of it: “Huwag na huwag talaga akong makarinig na corruption, even a whiff or whisper. I will fire you or place you somewhere. Mamili kayo: ComVal, Jolo.”

No protest was heard from the leaders and constituencies of Compostela Valley and Jolo for the reference to their province and city as the pits fit for scalawags. But the point was made: Don’t mess with President Duterte in his crusade against government corruption.

And here we are, almost on the last legs of the administration that came to power on the exciting prospect of change. In its report for the year 2020, the Commission on Audit (COA) has presented a dismaying picture of a government in disarray, its agencies not only sorely remiss in fulfilling essential documentary requirements in accounts and transactions but also, and most troubling, shockingly neglectful of the welfare of Filipinos in terms of unutilized funds intended for the pandemic response, medical and other supplies purchased on overprice, and suspicious million- or billion-peso transfers between agencies.

Even Tesda (or the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority) has been found, not reverting P5.18 billion in unused scholarship/training funds to the national treasury, but “parking” the same in its provincial and district offices—“quite alarming,” per the COA which is not given to pungent language.

But the President has gruffly told the COA in a public address to “stop that flagging, goddamnit,” and not to publish its reports, as though unaware that the constitutional body is mandated to look into all government transactions and to make its annual monitoring report public. Even the Philippine National Police chief, Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, felt the need to say that the COA should not take its findings to the media, “as though the agencies have already committed a sin.” The PNP was flagged for not terminating contracts worth P1.69 billion even after suppliers had failed to meet delivery deadlines. Thankfully, Eleazar found the grace to rethink his position and to “stand corrected”; he said the PNP was “taking all the COA observations seriously,” and was improving its budget spending according to “genuine reforms … anchored on transparency, accountability and professionalism.”

These are things devoutly to be wished at this time of mass unemployment and extreme need. Hospitals are filled to bursting and exhausted health workers are forced to beg for their special risk allowance and other benefits mandated by law, yet the Department of Health through the addled Secretary Francisco Duque III cannot explain to Congress the “deficiencies” in the use of P67 billion (for timely and efficient pandemic response) and P11.8 billion (for health supplies, equipment, and services to benefit health workers and the general public), as well as a transfer of P42 billion to the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management for overpriced supplies.

The unexplained DOH numbers have released a veritable gust of, if not corruption, then suspicion of it, but Duque will not fall on his sword the way a proper knight would, and his king has inexplicably gone out on a limb for him. Retired ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales says, correctly, that the Office of the Ombudsman should intervene, citing the 2017 agreement she signed with the COA creating a joint task force that automatically looks into audits of corruption cases involving at least P100 million. But—not surprisingly—Ombudsman Samuel Martires says he will “await the completion of the auditing process.”

And Malacañang? Out of the blue, Mr. Duterte axed the chief of the National Electrification Administration, Edgardo Masongsong, who was apparently found by the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission to have used the agency’s funds for a party-list group’s election campaign in 2019. The President says he dismissed Masongsong, having been “given the opportunity to show to the people again that we are not bragging about it, but we are trying our best to cope with the situation regarding graft and corruption in our government.”

Mouthpiece Harry Roque is merrily bragging about it, or engaging in the customary Palace hyperbole. Given all the axing done by Mr. Duterte, he says, there’s absolutely no doubt that with evidence, there will be dismissals galore: “Sa dami po ng nasibak na ni Presidente dahil po sa corruption, wala naman po kaduda-duda na kung meron namang ebidensya, sibak, sibak, sibak po ’yan.”

Duque’s ripe for the picking. Show us.