During last September’s Senate hearings, Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) officials revealed that they received 25-month bonuses apart from their salaries. One official earned PhP 4 million (USD 95,238) in 2009 alone.

The bonuses include an anniversary bonus, mid-year financial assistance, yearend financial assistance, productivity bonus, performance bonus, educational assistance, rate-rebasing bonus, privatization bonus, efficiency incentive, performance enhancement bonus, corporate Christmas package, traditional Christmas package, calamity financial assistance, scholarship allowance, and family week allowance, among others.

This is in clear violation of a memorandum order issued by the previous administration, which limits the salaries of government-owned and -controlled corporation (GOCC) executives to twice that of Cabinet secretaries.

Given the pursuit of exorbitant discretionary funds and perks granted by officials to themselves in the different government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) such as the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM), Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) and the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) – it is clear the Aquino government has been taking bold steps to track down and punish those who abused the system during the previous administration.

But what about the future? Will there be future exposes and Commission on Audit (COA) reports that will highlight abusive spending on perks by officials in 2011, or 2012? What exactly is the system that allows for discretionary funds and public perks?

 The Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project (PPTRP) delves into some of the laws, rules and regulations in an effort to understand past and current practices. It is sometimes said that what is allowable is not always right – and what is right is not always allowed.

The most famous auditor of the country has a new bombshell with the just released “2010 Report on Salaries and Allowances (ROSA) Received by Principal Officers and Members of Governing Boards of Government-Owned and -Controlled Corporations (GOCCs) and their Subsidiaries and Secretaries, Undersecretaries and Assistant Secretaries and Other Officials of Equivalent Rank of National Government Agencies (NGAs).”

Commission on Audit (COA) Commissioner Heidi Mendoza said in the introduction to the 900-page report that the objective is “to promote transparency in government by monitoring the annual salaries and allowances received by government officials holding high and/or multiple positions as well as determine the total amount of emoluments and benefits received by them from different state agencies/instrumentalities with which they are affiliated.”

The proposed 30 percent water rate increase—pending at the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA)—proposed by the Cagayan de Oro Water District (COWD) on June 1, 2011 has revived calls to turn the facility into a cooperative.

“We will fight this increase. We will be forced to intervene since water is a very basic service. I’m not against turning the water district into a cooperative,” said city councilor Alden Bacal -- present chair of the committee on public utilities -- while past committee chair Ian Mark Nacaya said discussion on the proposal to turn the COWD into a consumers’ cooperative should be made and studied again in view of the planned increase in water rates.

The pronouncements came after Roman Catholic Archbishop Antonio Ledesma and his group Bishop-Businessmen's Conference (BBC) asked the Commission on Audit (COA) for copies of its reports on the COWD's finances from 2007 to 2010. The group wants to examine the finances of the facility and its management.

When former Congressman and ‘showman’ Prospero Pichay Jr. accepted the chairmanship of the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) a year after losing badly in the 2007 national elections, people thought that this was an extremely small consolation prize from then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. It was a very low-profile position for one who had risen so far and hitherto enjoyed high profile positions with the blessing of his boss.

Pichay had at first refused to be appointed to the LWUA board on August 28, 2008. Yet just one week later he changed his mind and proudly announced how he had accepted his appointment “as the government’s water boy for LWUA board membership with a nomination to be elected as chairman.” 

On his defeat, Pichay had first been offered the post as administrator of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA). But organizations of migrant workers and recruitment agencies vigorously opposed this plan. 

Going to the LWUA appeared a major step back for him given Pichay had been the representative of Surigao del Sur’s first district for nine years (1998-2007). While there, he had been chair of the House Committee on National Defense (2001-2004), before subsequently heading up the House contingent to the Commission on Appointments (2004-2007).