Lifestyle check needed at DBM

Last Monday’s mini-Cabinet meeting with Philippine Airlines execs elicited nothing, for one simple reason. Cebu Pacific boss Lance Gokongwei was there on Malacañang’s invitation, one official rued. Naturally PAL chairman Lucio Tan and president Jaime Bautista wouldn’t talk in front of their main competitor about internal company matters. It was prickly from thereon, with some officials looking for sins instead of solutions to PAL’s problem of serial pilot resignations. It wasn’t Gokongwei’s fault either. He had been called in to answer if his airline could fill in the rival’s cancelled flights. Of course he can, but then, why would he deploy extra flights from Manila to Iloilo, Bacolod and Cagayan de Oro when the lean season has set in? PAL remedied the cancellations by last Wednesday.

A lesson learned here is restraint. While PAL’s flight foul-ups could mar tourism, it didn’t need government intervention. Two-dozen pilots had resigned for better jobs in April-July without giving the airline six months’ notice, as set by the labor office for mission-critical skills. It’s been recurring since 2006, but this time the poached pilots all happened to be specialists in the short-haul Airbus 319/320. So 35 domestic trips flopped last weekend. The resignations weren’t a labor row that needed mediation, but a legal one for breach of contract. Except for two, the resignees owe PAL three years’ service, or the cash equivalent, for their subsidized training cost. The Palace thought that a mass desertion by PAL’s remaining 448 pilots would ensue, into overseas pay and perks of $17,000 a month, triple PAL’s rate. It was wrong. Foreign carriers don’t have that many job openings. The industry is still in worldwide slump; the only growth is in budget airlines.

The real labor tiff is with cabin crew. PAL is now in the midst of collective bargaining with the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines.

* * *

Finally a high-ranking military officer is talking about personally being pressured to cheat the 2004 presidential polls. Rear Adm. Feliciano Angue must be encouraged to bare all. It would sanitize the military from partisan politics.

* * *

My recent piece on the budget racket elicited a flood of reactions. Many of the e-mailers seem to be in the know. Starting with budget horse-trading in Congress, the corruption climaxes with kickbacks from projects. As Public Works Sec. Rogelio Singson noted, the dirt is partly in bidding but mostly in project identification. Worsening matters are extortionate cabinet members, Malacañang aides and budget bureaucrats who take cuts from contractors following up payments. Such cuts come from “tradable” forms of the Department of Budget and Management: the SARO (special allotment release order) and NCA (notice of cash allotment). Budget U-Sec. Laura B. Pascua said in her Letter to the Editor yesterday that they’re making pork barrel spending transparent. She also enjoined the public to help disclose graft. She could pick up ideas from these readers:

S. Santos: “Re the DBM response to your column, I suggest that the staff of the ex-Secretary, now the staff of Secretary Butch Abad, be lifestyle-checked. One of them has just finished constructing a three-story house and bought a car. Another is building a house and also bought a car, although her husband is jobless. Bureau directors and division chiefs should submit to scrutiny.”

C.S.: “There really are fixers at the DBM, taking 25 percent from the SARO or NCA amount. If the contractor doesn’t agree to the percentage, he gets no fund release. That’s why insiders want Secretary Abad to conduct lifestyle checks, even on his immediate staff inherited from predecessors.”

Marcelo Endaya, Malvar, Batangas: “A high official of President Arroyo, after being driven out of the National Telecoms Commission, used strong connections in the DBM to make money. He distributed SAROs for a fat commission to Sto. Tomas, Talisay, Tanauan, Malvar, Laurel and Balete, Batangas. Only two constructors are into all the district’s public works: roads, bridges, water systems, covered courts, and school buildings — almost a billion pesos from 2004 to 2010. One of them confided that the former NTC official demands 25 percent of the SARO, while the local execs get the same amount. Assuming the contractor gets a 10-percent profit margin, only 40 percent actually goes to the project. The SARO fixer now has a vacation house overlooking Taal Lake, plus a cockpit, coconut plantations and a tourist resort in the district. He has Lexus and Land Cruiser SUVs, Porsche and BMW sports cars, and a Mercedes Benz.”

Arnel Dizon, Navy: “Everyone’s into it: senators, congressmen, governors, mayors, barangay chairmen.”

Ernesto L.: “To find out the corrupt district and regional engineers, Secretary Singson must review who were recently promoted and jumped over their seniors. They are mostly from Pampanga province of the former President.”

Frank Ligutan: “All DPWH biddings were rigged; all DBM releases had kickbacks paid in advance. One DPWH undersecretary was suspended as regional director for an anomaly; he gets kickbacks from projects distributed to district engineers. Even clerks get paid to misplace complaint letters against corrupt officials.”

Jose Abes: “I know the identity of the influence-peddling lawyer at DBM; he victimized my friend through 25-percent cuts from P30-million releases to a city in Luzon. And why is an undersecretary releasing P2 billion a month for the settlement of claims for Mt. Pinatubo projects — two decades after the volcano erupted? A DBM regional director through whom the money is released has been buying houses, cars and land for herself and her lowly siblings.”

G.B.: “Maybe Congressman Manny Pacquiao should punch away the pork barrel system.”

* * *

 “Life is beautiful because it is life. The beauty of death is that it leads to a fuller life.” Shafts of Light, Fr. Guido Arguelles, SJ

* * *

E-mail: [email protected]