“I cannot imagine how people can be so greedy that they involve themselves in ghost projects or non-existent projects and get away with it”
HAVING been a journalist for more than seven decades, I had covered most of the government agencies.
When I covered the Bureau of Customs, I considered it the worst government agency because of the amount of smuggling that went through it, often with the connivance of politicians.
I could not blame people for concluding that whenever a government official displayed excess luxury or sudden wealth, they assumed he was with the BOC.
I also covered the Department of Public Works and Highways. It was not as bad as it is today.
Now, people working with the DPWH are even ashamed to wear their uniforms.
Today we see the amount of anomalies committed by contractors, district engineers and public officials involved in government projects, especially in projects involving public works, roads, bridges and government buildings, amounting not only to millions or billions, but to trillions of pesos.
I never thought people involved in government projects would resort to committing what they are now doing involving billions of pesos.
Take for example the Discaya couple, Curlee and Sara, having 40 luxury vehicles, when they can ride in only one at a time. How can people commit such anomalies?
I am also amazed at the amount of greed people have to obtain helicopters, private planes and numerous mansions.
But I see now their insatiable greed committing tax evasion amounting to more than 7 billion pesos.
There is the anomaly at the DPWH in having ghost projects. This means the district engineers approved the non-existent projects. That to me is the height of graft and corruption.
They should be punished like in the olden times where people were guillotined or hanged.
In my previous columns, I advocated against the death penalty, but as I see it now, people committing such kinds of graft and anomalies deserve no less than the death penalty, if only to instill in their hearts the fear of committing crimes against people, Santa Banana!
How can the country ever recover the money of the people lost from these anomalies?
I do not see any way the people can recover the money stolen from them. I cannot imagine ghost projects amounting to ½ of 8000 government projects.
People have asked me many times why I never worked in government.
I tell them that I have covered most of the government agencies and I know only too well that when you work for the government, people become suspicious of you and think that whatever you own or have was obtained from your committing graft and corruption.
I have been offered to be a press secretary twice — once during the time of President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. and another during the term of President Fidel Valdez Ramos.
I was also offered to be a mayor, then a congressman and even governor in my province of Abra. But I was never tempted to accept them
Santa Banana, how in the world can people who are victims of poverty make their lives better if the money supposed to help them was stolen from the government.
Now, being associated with the government sometimes is looked upon as shameful, especially now, with all the anomalies where the money of the people is stolen from them, in cooperation with people also in government or people supposed to work for the government, like contractors for flood control projects.
I don’t know how we can ever recover all the trillions that these people in their insatiable greed have stolen.
I cannot imagine how people can be so greedy that they involve themselves in ghost projects or non-existent projects and get away with it.
There are now also reports of ghost or non-existent hospitals, Santa Banana!
The question has been asked of me as a journalist: what can be done to stop all these anomalies and how can the money of the people be recovered?
I cannot say how it can be done.
As President Marcos Jr. said,in his last State of the Nation Address “Mahiya naman kayo.”
Unfortunately, being in government, you can either join a syndicate of corrupt people or, if you choose to try to reform government, you will end up fighting against the windmills, like Don Quixote.
