‘Public service is a public trust’
The continuing revelations about the monstrous, mind-boggling plunder of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF or pork barrel) and the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) have brought the Aquino administration to an agonizing stretch in its much-touted “tuwid na daan” journey. What is appalling is that the members of the Philippine Senate and the House of Representatives who are implicated in these controversies don’t seem to feel any remorse as they wash their dirty linens in public. This is not supposed to be the way senators address these crises.
I thought senators are above such outrageousness. I thought the word “senate” is derived from the Latin word “senex,” which means “old man,” who, by reason of age and experience, is deemed to have gained an abundance of wisdom.
Our lawmakers must maintain high ethical standards and perform their functions with humility and sense of accountability, as expected of public officers. Prudence dictates that instead of accusing each other, they should police their ranks. If needed, they should go to the Supreme Court, a coequal branch of government, its legal conscience, for “guidance.”
Last Oct. 4, concerned citizens gathered in a historic corner of Makati to denounce corruption in the government. Public servants in the government must remember these always: “The voice of the people is the voice of God” and “Sovereignty resides in the people and all the powers of the government emanate from them.” Also, “Public service is a public trust.”
—ANGELO M. ADOR DIONISIO,
