No transparency at the Capitol?
Remember the campaign promise of Pres. Benigno Aquino III in 2010 -- that if he is elected President he would pass the Freedom of Information Bill? Well, this is one campaign promise that continues to still be a promise. If my reckoning is right on target, I doubt if the FOI bill would even pass after PNoy exits from Malacañang. This is what Daang Matuwid has brought to the nation. Yet day in and day out PNoy sells the idea of Daang Matuwid to the Filipino people like a broken record.
Now that Pres. Aquino is passing the Daang Matuwid baton to his anointed one, former Department of Interior & Local Government Secretary Manuel "Mar" Roxas, he too is parroting the same Daang Matuwid line to the point that he sounds very nauseating! Only the hardcore Yellow followers of PNoy (the paid ones, of course) are still singing hosannas to Daang Matuwid like a church choir, even if the whole assembly has already left the church! Now it's Mar Roxas that's parroting the slogan!
Today we will only discuss one major but important issue especially for us in the media on the effects of the non-passing of the FOI Bill. Enter the recent controversy at the Provincial Capitol when former DyCM anchorman and now DyRF broadcaster Oscar Pasaporte made (he wrote it last Sept. 23rd) a formal request to the Province of Cebu seeking the release of documents regarding the consultancy contracts of the Province of Cebu worth P58 million -- something that we, the taxpayers, ought to know.
Unfortunately, provincial administrator Mark Tolentino wrote Pasaporte to tell him he was not giving this information because it would be used in attacking for instance the consultancy contracts of Ms. Rocelyn Zosa and other consultants. In media lingo, we call this prior restraint! Just because you think or believe that the information requested by the media might be used by the same media to attack you, you are still duty-bound to give that information to the media simply because the people or the taxpayer has the right to this information. This is not to mention that the salaries of Atty. Tolentino are paid for by the taxpayers of the Province of Cebu!
Pray tell me, Atty. Tolentino, why is this information being withheld from the taxpaying public? Do we need to go to court in order to pry that information from the Office of the Governor? Mind you, this is the first time that I have mentioned this issue of consultants in this column as this issue has triggered the curious in me -- why is the Province of Cebu spending so much in consultancy fees? Mind you, I don't even listen to the radio so I have no way of knowing how Oscar Pasaporte attacked the governor in his radio program? But for the interest of transparency, Atty. Tolentino, you must release those figures because the people of Cebu have the right to know! In my book, if a governor has nothing to hide, then he should release that information.
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Come now, didn't we just write an article about Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte's move to ran for President… that he is running for the wrong reasons because he wasn't happy with the results of the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) who did not disqualify Sen. Grace Poe? Now the Inquirer came up with the headline that he would fight to ensure that Sen. Grace Poe is disqualified to run for President.
Methinks that Mayor Duterte is doing someone else's bidding. With Sen. Grace Poe extending her lead versus all the other presidentiables, I just can't understand why Mayor Duterte is now running because he is after the disqualification of Sen. Grace Poe. I reckon Mayor Duterte is doing this for his pal, DILG Sec. Manuel "Mar" Roxas. This is part of the zarzuela that Roxas and Duterte concocted last January, where he told a group of Cebuano businessmen that he would not run for President if Mar Roxas would run. So why is Duterte doing this, huh?
But while he is getting into the problems of Sen. Grace Poe, Mayor Duterte has some legal problems as well. I learned that my good friend, Atty. Romulo "Mac" Macalintal, is questioning Mayor Duterte's becoming the substitute presidential candidate of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) because the withdrawal of Martin Diño of PDP-Laban was a certificate to run for mayor in Pasay City. If Duterte wants to substitute Martin Diño, he must run for mayor of Pasay City not for president. So let's see Mayor Duterte hurdle this legal issue that's going to hound him.
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