Only 13 more days to go before this self-praising administration finally bows out, but each day that BS Aquino and his minions spend in the Palace feels like a lifetime for people who can no longer endure the blindness, hypocrisy, incompetence and self-righteousness that has spread like a virus all around Malacañang. The first thing incoming President Rodrigo Duterte should do is to have someone spray the whole area with some kind of “anti-yellow fever” disinfectant so that the next occupant and his official family will not be afflicted.
Hopefully, the new administration will be more responsive to the concerns of the people and the new Cabinet officials will really do something to look for solutions (we’re not deluded into thinking everything will be fixed overnight) knowing they cannot BS their way around Mayor Duterte, whose impatience is also well-known but only when it comes to taking action over reported problems, even something as simple as a lamppost that fell down and is obstructing traffic.
One source of extreme irritation is the LTO which keeps promising that stickers and car plates will soon be available at a certain date, even claiming recently that 93 percent of the license plates turned over by the Bureau of Customs has been delivered to its regional offices, following the issuance of a temporary restraining order by the Supreme Court. Funnily though, LTO chief Roberto Cabrera says he does not know exactly how many license plates have been distributed. (And did we mention that the agency also promised last April that 2016 plates and stickers are going to be available by May?)
In many places though, the number is a big fat zero—with car owners told that 2016 stickers and car plates are still unavailable, and for people to just drop by the LTO branch or keep calling to follow up. Thick faced, definitely, because these officials just shrug when asked about the 2015 stickers that motorists paid for but did not receive. Until now, nobody can (or wants to) answer where all that money from these non-existent stickers went. Simply out, people paid for a product that was not delivered so in all probability there was no product at all in the first place, meaning money was not spent for production.
Motorists renewing their registration are also angry because they have to pay a penalty of P200 even if they were only a day late in registering their vehicles. So what about this government, they ask us—shouldn’t they also be penalized for the delay in issuing the stickers and car plates? And that’s more than one year, mind you. So again, what happened to the money people paid for undelivered stickers?
One of our buddies made an “educated guess,” reminding us about the recent May elections and the quandary faced by the Liberal Party because it was unable to file the statement of contributions and expenses on time. Why these LP guys were unable to comply with the deadline is now the source of numerous speculations. After all, aren’t there a lot of yellow minions who could have filed and monitored the expenses if the LP machinery was really so organized and well oiled as they claim? How come ailing (yet still colorfully feisty) Senator Miriam Santiago was able to comply with the Comelec’s deadline?
Good thing Comelec commissioner Christian Robert Lim—who heads the Campaign Finance Office—has made the recommendation to grant the request of the LP for an extension. What—are they special people that they need special treatment? Let’s see though if the rest of the Comelec officials including chairman Andy Bautista will not waffle and make some excuse again to grant LP’s request.
Lim said the SOCE should be filed within 30 days after the elections per Republic Act 7166, which means June 8 was the deadline. The LP was only able to file its SOCE on June 14. “To grant the request for extension would not only be unfair to other candidates and parties who complied within the prescribed period but also would be a reversal of the commission’s own resolution on the matter,” Lim rightfully pointed out in his memo. A consequence of the failure to file the SOCE on time would be the inability of winning candidates under the LP to occupy their respective positions.
As expected, the LP mouthpiece has slammed Lim’s memo, calling it “absurd” and that the filing is just “ministerial” (implying that it is unimportant?). He has the nerve to say that preventing Leni Robredo from occupying the position of VP would be a dismissal of the will of the people—hello? Doesn’t he know that majority of voters continue to doubt Robredo’s win since there have been a lot of allegations—with corresponding proof—of cheating and manipulation to shave votes from Senator Bongbong Marcos?
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