While the first of our two end-of project surveys has just been posted, the results coming in already make for some very interesting reading. This survey largely centers on which direction you think the fight for greater transparency and accountability is headed in the Philippines and what you think is currently present, necessary or missing in thinking, plans and action.

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.

Is it right or ethical for public funds to be channeled into a program that seems to be named after the new governor of Negros Oriental – or is this a very blatant example of political patronage designed to help him stay in power?

Degamo’s rise to Capitol

Roel Ragay Degamo, a native of Siaton town, became governor of Negros Oriental not by election but through legal succession following the deaths of the two top officials elected in the May 2010 national and local elections.

In that same election, Degamo was re-elected as one of the three members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (Provincial Council) representing the 3rd District of the province.

In Zamboanga Del Norte, the provincial council approved a PhP 25 million (USD 595,238) supplemental budget for intelligence funds with barely a month left in the fiscal year. In Iligan City, a councilor barged into the announcer’s booth of a local radio station and attacked the news anchor who had questioned the PhP 14 million (USD 333,333) budget allegedly spent for snacks during committee hearings. The broadcaster had said he never saw any snacks served at the hearings.

In Bicol, a quarry that has been in operation for several years has failed to pay any fees over to the barangay in which it sits. In Misamis Occidental, a fourth class municipality has pegged its salary scale to that of a second class municipality and nobody has complained since employees are all reportedly benefiting. Western Samar meanwhile, has been subsisting on a reenacted budget since 2008 which begs the question what has happened to all the savings made from one-off projects which were continually refunded.

While the 1987 Philippine Constitution gives Congress the power of appropriations, provisions in Presidential Decree No. 1177 give the President discretion over certain appropriations such as  lump sum appropriations, the authority to suspend the release of funds, and use of savings in appropriations to cover deficits. These are powers sourced from this decree issued during the dictatorial rule of President Marcos and not sanctioned by the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

It is a decree that should ideally be rescinded and struck down by this administration in the interests of public transparency and accountability since it gives any president massive powers to switch around and manipulate funds regardless of any decisions or restrictions initially put on approved monies by the legislature.

The Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project (PPTRP) held its 10^th training on advanced transparency and anti-corruption reporting called “Numeracy for Journalists, Civil Society Organizations and Citizens” on June 30 at the JJ’s Seafood Village in Tagbilaran City in Bohol.

By any measure or program that aims to prevent or eliminate corruption, the role of audit is crucial.

The role of the Commission on Audit (COA) is thus very important if President Benigno Aquino III is to deliver on his program of good governance.

Aquino has appointed Ma. Gracia Pulido Tan as COA chairperson, a no non-sense accountant who previously had stints in government as Finance Undersecretary.

In an interview with the Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project (PPTRP), Tan said she accepted the position with the aim of ensuring that COA would be what it is meant to be– to ensure that public funds would have full and proper accounting.

August heralds the systematic releases of the Commission on Audit (COA) annual audit reports (AAR) of all government agencies and entities and its report on salaries and allowances (ROSA) of all government officials in national government agencies, water districts, and government-owned and/or -controlled corporations (GOCCs).

Among findings from early 2010 audit reports just released is the revelation that a presidential commission prevented the audit agency from conducting an audit for fiscal year 2010.

It appears the Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement (PCVFA) – an agency sitting within the Office of the President -- prevented the COA from doing an audit.

The Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project (PPTRP) held its 8^th training on advanced and anti-corruption reporting dubbed as “Numeracy for Journalists, Civil Society Organizations and Citizens” on June 3 at the Social Action Center of Pampanga in San Fernando City, Pampanga.

ZTE-NBN deal whistleblower Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada spoke out and told all he knew. As a result, while corruption persists, his life has changed forever.

“I still live in fear because those I uncovered are still in power and they are still billionaires –whereas I cannot live a normal live anymore,” Lozada tells the Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project (PPTRP).

Lozada, former Chief Executive Officer of the government-run Philippine Forest Corporation and then consultant of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) alleged back in 2008 that then Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Chairman Benjamin Abalos and former First Gentleman Mike Arroyo pocketed kickbacks in the USD 329 million construction contract awarded to Chinese telecommunications firm ZTE for the proposed National Broadband Network.

Lozada did not receive any protection from the government. Instead the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines gave him the sanctuary he sought.

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 Sangguniang Kabataan (SK, Youth Council) was created almost 20 years ago to replace the defunct Kabataang Barangay during the Marcos era.  The Local Government Code of 1991 or Republic Act 7160 gave way to the formation of Katipunan ng Kabataan (KK) chapter – the general assembly of youth in each barangay nationwide.  The law states that any youth aged between 15 and 17 can vote or be voted on to govern the SK. The SK is the legislative body of youths, and its chair sits as a regular member in the Barangay Council as representative of local youth.

Under its constitution and by-laws, the main function of the SK is to “promulgate resolutions necessary to carry out the objectives of the youth in the barangay, initiate programs designed to enhance the social, political, economic, cultural, spiritual a physical development of the members, conduct fund-raising activities, consult and coordinate with all youth organizations in the barangay for policy formulation and program implementation, and coordinate with the appropriate agency for the implementation of youth development projects and programs at the national level.”

KIDAPAWAN CITY – People here are beginning to question exactly how the city government actually spent an estimated PhP 77 million (USD 1.83 million) which different government agencies reportedly channeled to the city.

According to Kidapawan City Councilor Lauro Taynan Jr., the sum was reportedly transferred to the city government coffers between 2008 and 2009.

Speaking at a recent meeting of the Sangguniang Panglunsod (SP or City Council), councilor Tayman said the city’s chief executive and some departmental heads who would have had a direct hand in the planning and implementation of different nationally funded infrastructure projects, should be made to appear before the SP and say how the money was actually spent.

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).

PANGLAO, Bohol -- Nearly 20 years after the idea was first proposed, Bohol finally seems set to have its own international airport located on the tourist island of Panglao.

The airport is to be built as part of the government’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) plan with a public invitation to bid due out in August.

Local political leaders from governors down have long campaigned for a replacement of the small and heavily congested domestic airport located less than a mile from Tagbilaran City on the neighboring island of Bohol. The proposed new airport lies across the causeway and is a 40-minute drive away from the city.

In his younger days as a student in the southern Philippine province of Sulu, Al-Ghosaibi Jutli saw the huge potential seaweed farming held for local communities if only it was properly organized and exploited. Seaweed is used to produce everything from bread, beer, soap and toothpaste through to crucial fertilizers, vitamins and medicine.

Now working as a counselor in a Sharia court in Zamboanga del Norte, Jutli laments that the Sulu seaweed industry will remain an untapped dream and living conditions back home will never improve as a result.

He says the one-time big-time humanitarian and livelihood missions of civic organizations there are greatly appreciated and helpful, but admits their effects are not expected to last in the long run.