This is our first column for the Year 2012 and like many Filipinos we have high hopes that this year will be better than the previous 2011, which we can only characterize as the Year of Great Natural Disasters. What made it worse for me are the man-made disasters that got exposed at the height of storm Sendong, proof that whatever laws or executive orders that the President signs… doesn’t really get followed. The logging ban is our best example… and yes, the armed groups are still roaming many parts of this country, especially the Muslim separatist groups and the New People’s Army (NPA) because the Aquino regime obviously is tolerating these people.
For this year, we can expect a deluge of political issues that would erupt during the impeachment trial of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona… how it will end we can only speculate. But I don’t like the message being sent by the leftist supporters of P-Noy who told the press that they would not accept defeat in the impeachment trial. What are they telling us… that they would disrupt the proceedings just like the Erap impeachment trial 11 years ago? These statements make me puke!
Then there are many unfinished businesses that the Aquino regime has to address… like why Cagayan de Oro City and Iligan City were devastated by Sendong? Who allowed people to build along the sandbars of the rivers that were washed away by the flash floods? Sendong only exposed the shortcomings of our political leaders. Someone has to pay for those people who were carried away by the flash floods, that’s if P-Noy cares enough for those poor people. Meanwhile, I have a very interesting letter, which we are reprinting to set the tone for the Year 2012.
“Dear Bobit, To me, you are the only media man that can be trusted and can understand the feeling, sentiment and other concerns of an individual. I am presenting to you my disappointment, feeling of aridity and lethargy to the point of becoming hopeless and very critical of so many things going around us.
Malacanang yielded to make-believe propaganda experts but are nincompoops. These are the same people in previous administration who plan strategies that insult our intelligence as if Filipinos are ignorant and lack political judgment. In coordination with the sycophants, flatterers, ass-lickers and bottom-kissers, they are quick in their propaganda without thinking if it will not bounce off.
PhilSTAR front-page headline of December 29, 2011 said, “95% of Pinoys enter 2012 with hope.” P-Noy said, “We have raised the fight against poverty and corruption. Surely we are winning the fight against poverty and corruption.” Malacanang propaganda expert thinks that Filipinos are narrow minded or crazy people, thus, they don’t care the effect of what they do or say or will bounce off.
In the succeeding pages of the same paper and of the same date, COA reported that P193.6M donations for typhoon victims sleeping in the bank. P5.6 M of donations was use for purposes not directly benefiting calamity victims. It was found utilized to pay miscellaneous expenses, which should be more appropriately charged, to regular funds like warehouse rental, forklift rental facilitation of release of donated goods, relief operation, food, etc.
UP Professor Marivic Raquiza claimed that 80% of the agency’s P49.359 billion program budget has been allotted to conditional cash transfer (CCT) program that according to COA the goal and objective of the program end up in the hands of gamblers, drug pushers and even rich people.
The pattern found in COA’s report is copied from Road User Tax as also reported by COA per Phil Star issue of October 2, 2009. P78.22 was misused. It was used for salaries and allowances for regular, casual and contractual employees, incentives and other operating expenses including purchase of equipment. How can Malacanang propaganda experts say, “We are winning the fight against poverty and corruption” when the pattern of diversion and government non-reactions are still the same?
The COA report of October 2, 2009 is in the wastebasket; no resolution, no punishment. The December 29, 3011 COA report, only Sen. Escudero reacted on December 30, saying; “Misuse of funds for calamity victims should be a heinous crime. Malacanang is silent about it. Will they also copy the death of the COA’s October 2, 2009 report? Joe Nacilla.”
Thank you Joe for pointing us to the right direction. Yes, whatever happened to the Road Users Tax case huh? I believe that the Malacañang propagandists have gone overboard. We should remind them that Nazi propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels was telling the German people that they were winning the war, while the Allied bombs were falling on Berlin. SWS and Pulse Asia have become the propaganda tools of Pres. P-Noy.
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For e-mail responses to this article, write to vsbobita@mo-pzcom.comor vsbobita@gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.