Crooks are always crooks – 2

By Modesto P. Sa-onoy

If the Department of the Interior and Local Governments would make true its words maybe one of the best things that can come out in this pandemic is the ferreting out of some crooks in government.

Exposing the scalawags among the barangay officials suspected of shaving off money from the social amelioration program intended to help the poor at this time of unemployment, can restore the people’s trust in government even a little bit.

DILG Secretary Eduardo Año promised, “The police will not stop rounding up these corrupt barangay officials who are the real virus of society. This type of arrest is what the PNP is aching to do, because it is seething in anger at corrupt officials.” Indeed, people are seething in anger at officials entrusted with millions but pocketed public funds intended for the poor. These officials, like the virus, are without compassion, nay without souls.

National papers reports say the complaints received by the DILG against these officials include falsification of SAP forms, collection of supposed processing fees, and the splitting of financial assistance. I suspected that the greed of these officials was prompted by the belief that because the money is for a national emergency, it will be exempted from accountability.

The Ombudsman had issued a warning but it was a feeble voice drown out by the massive reporting on the spread of the virus and the fatalities that media did not give it much attention or included in the warnings. The media was so focused that matters as corruption was set aside.

Secretary Año said he had also requested the National Bureau of Investigation which is under the Department of Justice, to prioritize investigating reports of graft and corruption in the SAP.

The DILG urged the public not to be afraid to report cases of irregularity but the DILG should also be alert at the local government investigations because of political considerations considering that the barangay officials are vital cogs in the wheels of political machineries. The opposition barangay chiefs can be squeezed dry and the administration barangay chiefs cleansed.

At Malacañang, presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. vowed that local officials found pocketing aid intended for sectors sidelined by the lockdown would be punished. He also threatened them with detention in facilities for persons infected with COVID 19.

“The CIDG has its orders. They were directed to receive such complaints. Go to CIDG and we will arrest these officials,” Malacanang said adding that “If there are spaces in centers we prepared for the sick and the jail facilities are not enough, we would detain them there. We have to detain them to teach them a lesson that they should not touch the aid intended for the poorest sectors in our society.”

That probably would be the right place for them and, like in the song, “killing them softly”.

Last week the Bacolod Police made true its words to file charges against those reported to have skimmed from the SAP.

News report said that four officials and staff of Barangay Felisa in Bacolod City were charged before the Bacolod City Prosecutor’s Office: Barangay Felisa chairman Ramon Jardin, barangay secretary Stephen Jalandoon, purok president Corazon Latoza, and barangay liaison officer Rosejean Estador.

They were accused of violating Republic Act 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and RA 11469, or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act.

The Bacolod CIDG said seven complainants, all SAP beneficiaries, received P6,000 in financial aid on April 22, but that evening, the amount of “P4,000 was taken away by the liaison officer and the purok president allegedly on instructions of the barangay secretary and with knowledge of the barangay captain”.

The CIDG said the complainants filed their charges on May 7. I think this is in response to the call of President Duterte to report this kind of anomaly, and to encourage the citizens to complain, the President offered a reward of P30,000.

The CIDG-Bacolod also said it is investigating thirty additional complaints related to the SAP.

The case against the Barangay Felisa officials will be a watershed to determine the sincerity of the government to ferret out the crooks. At bar is the Bacolod City government considering the close political relationship of the Jardin couple to the mayor and whether Bacolod can be blinded to crookedness.