Transparency needed

The whole page advertisement by the League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP) that appeared in several national dailies yesterday, including The STAR, raised more questions than the needed answers to the burning issues at hand. The paid ad was a signed manifesto of the LPP calling for “Stop the Political Noise, Focus on Economic Growth.”

The LPP manifesto, among other things, was obviously an expression of support to the embattled President Arroyo who is again the subject of impeachment and resignation calls by the opposition and other anti-administration groups. The renewed ouster calls against Mrs. Arroyo was an offshoot of the alleged distribution of “cash gifts” to the governors and congressmen in their separate meetings with the President at Malacañang Palace on Oct. 11.

As I gathered, the governors were present during the board meeting of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) chaired by the President and the Cabinet at the Palace. The governors were invited in that Palace meeting as members and officials of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP). The ULAP is the umbrella organization of all elected city, town and municipal mayors down to councilors.

Based on the LPP website as of September this year, Governor Loreto Leo S. Ocampos of Misamis Occidental as the LPP national president, and Governor Luis Raymund F. Villafuerte Jr. of Camarines Sur as the LPP national chairman, are the principal signatories for purposes of withdrawing checks from the League’s official bank depository of funds. The other signatures required in the LPP-issued checks should also include that of Governor Casimiro A. Ynares III of Rizal Province as their treasurer, or Governor Ben P. Evardone of Eastern Samar as the secretary-general as the counter-signatories “for purposes of withdrawing by checks from the current account of the League of Provinces of the Philippines in Banco de Oro and for other relevant transactions.”

The manifesto was signed by 29 out of the 80 or so provincial governors all over the country who are supposed to be automatic members of the LPP. Priest-turned politician,  “Among” Ed Panlilio of Pampanga and fellow neophyte governor, Jonjon Mendoza were not among the 29 signatories of this LPP manifesto. It was triggered by the public admission first by  Panlilio that he was given a bag of money with P500,000 on it. He pointed to Mendoza as the one who gave the bag to his aide.

In a press conference last week in Pampanga, Governor Panlilio showed to the media the bag and the bundled P1,000 bills, showing the Bank of Commerce seal indicating it was from this bank where these monies were apparently withdrawn. He explained he accepted the money because, as told to him and Governor Mendoza, these were for their respective “barangay projects.” Since the bag of money was given to him at the Palace, the Pampanga governor presumed the money came from the Office of the President (OP). In a letter replying to his inquiry as to the source of this money, the OP officially informed Governor Panlilio it did not come from the President’s funds. Had he asked immediately after receiving it, there would have been no issue at all.

After much heming and hawing, Governor Mendoza finally broke his silence and confirmed what Panlilio bared to the media. Mendoza called for his own press conference in Bulacan last Monday and named more names as among the other personalities who were present during this alleged “cash gift” distribution incident at the Palace. But after dragging the names of Department of Interior and Local Government official Asher Panadero, Governor Evardone, and Lakas-CMD executive director Ray Roquero, Governor Mendoza, clarified, however, none of the three handed out the bags of money to him. Mendoza pointed to a “woman in white dress” as the one who turned over to him the two bags of money for him and Governor Panlilio.

So, where did all of these things leave Governors Panlilio and Mendoza? Of course, they are not left holding empty bags. In fact, the two Governors kept the money with their respective provincial city treasurers for proper disposition later on as soon as the legality of these monies is settled.

Obviously, this was the reason why the two  governors were not signatories of this Manifesto. They were not asked by the LPP to sign the Manifesto because the 29 governors who signed it expressed their collective sentiment that they were put in a bad light by the public admissions of Governors Panlilio and Mendoza who obviously are still naïve in the ways of politics here. We would not know the reasons why the other LPP governors did not sign the Manifesto. We have heard some of the governors interviewed subsequently by various media that they were absent or some claimed they either left early or came late at the Palace meeting.

Governor Ynares, for one, told me when I bumped into him in our Tuesday breakfast gathering at the EDSA Shangri-La that it was a good thing that Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairman Bayani Fernando pulled him out of that Palace meeting before the meeting even started. Ynares said the MMDA chairman jokingly told him they should better leave before President Arroyo even sees the two of them. Or else, Fernando chortled, the President would castigate them for the looming garbage crisis over the landfill dispute in Rizal Province between Ynares and Montalban Mayor Cuerpo.

Other than the two governors, nobody else came forward to say or admit that he or she, too, got the same amount or less for their “barangay projects.” The LPP, in their meeting yesterday, finally came out with an official explanation that these monies were indeed financial assistance to their respective “barangay projects.” If that was the case, why did it take them two weeks to officially acknowledge it?

The moral lesson here is the crying need for pure and genuine transparency in the affairs of the government. This is what is sorely lacking in governance here in our country from the national leadership down to local executives.

Write to [email protected]