A warning to all Roderick Paulates

By Alex P. Vidal

“I can’t handle dishonesty; I like integrity in people and for me, that’s very important in a man.” —Shamita Shetty

THE act by dishonest public officials in the Philippines of hiring “ghost” employees and stealing their salaries is actually an old practice and, in fact, has been one of their chief sources of “extra income.”

If these corrupt public officials don’t have access to public works projects where kickbacks and grease money are easy and quick, there are many ways to skin a cat, so to speak.

Pocketing the salaries intended for non-existing (that’s why they’re called “ghosts”) employees has become a lucrative racket for these good-for-nothing public officials.

Governors, mayors, and members of the local legislature who abuse their authority can make instant money from this monkey business.

This flagrant act of dishonesty has been rampant in the LGUs (local government units) where job order/contract of service is allowed.

This controversy was again recently brought up in public because the person involved and had been convicted, Roderick Paulate, was a showbiz celebrity who used to serve as elected councilor in Quezon City.

Some of the Roderick Paulates in local and national government—those doing the same modus operandi for many years now—may be shaking in their pajamas now that their “role model” has been sentenced to spend a very long period of time in the calaboose.

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There were lesser-known thieves from lesser-known LGUs whose shenanigans and conviction by the Sandiganbayan were never reported in media.

In other words, Paulate’s predicament was neither exceptional nor the first case.

But it was Paulate’s rapaciousness that sank him in the deep mud.

After his election win in 2010 as Quezon City District 2 councilor, the comedian-politician was removed from office following the discovery of his alleged hiring of ghost employees from July to November of the same year.

The Office of the Ombudsman officially charged the popular comedian in 2018, claiming he falsified a Job Order/Contract of Service, including the signatures of fictitious contractors to oblige the city government to allocate funds for their salaries.

Paulate was sentenced to a total of between 10 and a half years to 62 years of imprisonment—broken down, the graft offense was six to eight years while each falsification offense (eight for public documents, one by public officer) accounts for six months to six years.

He was ordered to a pay a P10,000 fine for each count of the falsification offense, a total of P90,000, and is perpetually disqualified from public office.

Now that a big fish in the “ghost” employees brouhaha has been neutralized in the proper court of justice, we expect more Roderick Paulates to fall and join their ilk in jail. It’s only a matter of time.

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Some unbelieving fans received the 3-1 defeat of the United States to The Netherlands in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Round of 16 knockout match on December 3 with a grain of salt.

For some of them, it’s a big and shocking news. No, it’s not. It was meant to be.

We have friends who sharply reacted after watching the game “live” on cable like the Golden State Warriors were beaten by a basketball team from Papua New Guinea, or like ATP No. 2 Rafael Nadal was upset by 144^th ranked Borna Gojo in the Wimbledon.

Our reaction was, “yes, it was expected.” The Dutch booters were really expected to shut the door on the Americans—in World Cup. This is soccer, not basketball. The US men soccer team has never won the World Cup and was never there in the last top eight.

Although they, too, never won the World Cup but the Dutch hold the record for playing the most World Cup finals.

They finished second in the 1974, 1978 and 2010 World Cups, losing to West Germany, Argentina and Spain respectively. In 1988, they won the UEFA European Championship, their only title since participating in 1976.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)