Comelec does it again!

The news item “Want to live in high style? Join Comelec, solons learn” (Inquirer, 8/16/12), which reported that the Commission on Elections recently purchased luxurious beds and furnishings worth P7 million to refurbish the Comelec’s “rarely used” summer cottages in Baguio, and spent P7 million more for new vehicles, including an expensive Toyota Camry for the Comelec chair’s use. It appears that seven king-size beds worth P91,250 each and 17 queen-size beds at P84,600 each were purchased, plus other high-priced furnishings and household items. The report also says that cheaper beds approximating the ones purchased are available in the market.

The Comelec has done it again! Sometime in 2002, a scandal erupted when the Comelec was reported in the media to have purchased eight more brand-new top-of-the-line vehicles for its members at a total cost of P8.5 million, or at an average cost of more than P1.1 million each, in addition to the two vehicles already being enjoyed by each member. That purchase was described by retired Supreme Court Justice Isagani Cruz as “brazen extravagance” (Inquirer, 8/5/02).

The Comelec officials who facilitated the recent purchase should be reminded of the constitutional command that public officers must at all times “lead modest lives” (Sec. 1, Article XI, 1987 Constitution). Certainly, there is nothing “modest” about their living in “high style.”

I am appalled by the callousness and insensitivity betrayed by these purchases in blatant disregard of our suffering masses who live in abject poverty and destitution. The purchases betray thoughtless extravagance during a period of acute public want aggravated by a series of calamities afflicting our country.

Such scandalous spending of the people’s money is preventable in audit. The Commission on Audit (COA) could have stopped it outright in pre-audit, pursuant to its constitutional mandate to prevent and disallow irregular, unnecessary, excessive, extravagant, or unconscionable expenditures of government funds (Sec. 2.2, Article IX-D, 1987 Constitution). Not only is this latest purchase by the Comelec extravagant; it is unconscionable as well. And if the expensive vehicles were procured in addition to the vehicles that each member is already using, the purchase is also unnecessary. On top of the cost of gasoline and other maintenance items to be charged against government funds is the cost of insurance for the new vehicles, which could expectedly amount to a tidy sum also chargeable to Comelec funds, let alone the salaries and other perks of additional drivers who would be hired to operate them. As I see it, the Comelec has a lot of explaining to do.

What about the COA? In the interest of transparency, the matter being of public concern, the people have a right to be informed if these purchases have been subjected to strict audit examination and scrutiny so that, if warranted, officials found responsible therefor could be called to account for their actions.

—BARTOLOME C. FERNANDEZ JR.,

5431 Curie St., Palanan, Makati City