EDITORIAL - The travel bug

Fourteen is way below 77 — the higher figure being the number of times that the head of the Maritime Industry Authority has gone abroad in the past 18 months, as alleged by a congressman. MARINA Administrator Elena Bautista denied the claim of Agusan del Sur Rep. Rodolfo Plaza and advised the congressman to check his facts. Bautista said she went to London, where the International Maritime Organization is based, 14 times in the past four years.

Bautista insisted those trips yielded positive results for the country. She said a vacation she had planned last year, which would have taken her to Dubai, Rome, Paris, Prague and Budapest, was approved by her immediate boss, Transport and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza, but did not push through because of the sinking of the SuperFerry 9. Bautista urged Plaza to stop using her for his election bid.

Plaza, in a speech the other day at the House of Representatives, claimed he had documents to prove his accusation, insisting that Bautista pushed through with the trip to Dubai and Europe and that she also went to Belgium and Switzerland.

Whoever is lying, the controversy should remind public officials that if they want to earn frequent flyer miles, they should not do so at taxpayers’ expense. In the age of globalization, foreign trips for certain public officials may be unavoidable and may reap long-term dividends for the Philippines. But in many cases, trips have been undertaken for frivolous reasons. Last year, when the economy teetered on the brink of recession, top officials of the Presidential Commission on Good Government came under fire for frequent and unusually long foreign trips. PCGG Chairman Camilo Sabio and Commissioner Ricardo Abcede have not faced sanctions for those trips.

With President Arroyo herself under fire last year for her frequent travels despite the recession threat, there was no political will to stop lower   ranking government officials from indulging their penchant, at taxpayers’   expense,   for   globe-trotting. The failure to curb the travel bug of certain public officials has encouraged others to do the same. Congressmen themselves are among the biggest travelers. In the absence of leadership by example, taxpayers are bound to see more public funds going to officials’ foreign travel expenses.