Fly now, pay never

Philippine Daily Inquirer

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Fly now, pay never. That seems to be the general attitude of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her cohorts when it came to spending for her many international and local trips. Upon assuming office, not only did Arroyo become the most well-traveled of our post-martial law presidents, but she did it pretty much at will, bringing along whoever wanted to tag along regardless of the financial consequences.

This first came to light in late 2010 after the Aquino administration took over. An Arroyo Malacañang document revealed that the Philippine government spent P2.852 billion just for Arroyo’s foreign journeys. In nine years of contested office, Arroyo traveled regularly, pretty much up to her last days in power. These frequent trips became the subject of criticism, though that apparently did not deter Arroyo from continuing to travel constantly, about 80 such trips in her time in office. For this, the Arroyo administration earned a reputation for being a government of spendthrifts.

The administration of President Aquino has made it a mission to go, as much as possible, in a different direction, and among the most obvious changes was the Aquino administration’s severe cutback in foreign trips as well as spending for those few state visits the President goes on. He’s trying to make every trip count; in the one year and three months he has been in office, he has only visited eight countries.

Now, the Senate finance committee has discovered that the Arroyo administration essentially issued itself a blank check when it came to globe-trotting. Sen. Franklin Drilon, chair of the Senate finance committee, said that in its last months in office, the Arroyo administration took massive cash advances to pay for the officials who accompanied Arroyo on her foreign visits.

According to a Commission on Audit report, the total unliquidated amount ran up to almost P1 billion, of which some P594 million was spent just for the 2009 trips. Add to that the recently discovered additional P367.3 million cash advances for other travels, and you have a staggering amount of cash that remains unaccounted for.

The reason? Apparently, nobody kept a list.

No, seriously. The Aquino administration has discovered that there is virtually no way of tracking down who took those cash advances because nobody kept track, says Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa. “However, it appeared when we were inquiring about this that there was no record at all (of) who were part of the delegation of the former president whenever she traveled abroad. There was no official list, so the members of the delegation only became known if they voluntarily paid or reimbursed the government for whatever expense they incurred during those travels,” Ochoa explained.

There was a bizarre arrangement for the trips where a distinction was made between “paying” members and “non-paying” members of the delegations. The “non-paying” members were those who were considered essential to the trip and did not have to pay. But additional officials who went with Arroyo had to take cash advances to pay for their trips, ostensibly to be paid by them later on, after the trips.

Those cash advances have proven to be most elusive to track down, so unless a miraculous document listing these free-loaders comes to light, those cash advances may never be liquidated, exposing yet another financial mess left behind by the Arroyo administration, an indicator of how the Arroyo administration spent money – especially when it was other people’s money, namely that of the Filipino people – with a sense of impunity.

Drilon noted that Arroyo spent P940.1 million for foreign and local trips in 2009, while the budget allocated by Congress for travel was only P244.6 million, yet another cash ceiling that the Arroyo administration broke without batting an eyelash. “That is the kind of impunity and abuse committed,” Drilon said. “There was absolutely no respect for the appropriation authorized by Congress. They just disregarded (it) and just spent whatever amount they felt was needed.”

Though Arroyo and her cronies are no longer in office, they must be held accountable for their profligate actions. It is high time to identify these shameless jetsetters and bring them back to earth.

Aquino stars in New York

Philippine leader cited for antigraft campaign

By Christine O. Avendaño
Philippine Daily Inquirer

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NEW YORK—President Benigno Aquino III on Wednesday took center stage at a new multilateral initiative by eight countries aimed at ensuring transparency in government and the empowerment of citizens in fighting corruption.

Saying the Philippines “is not only excited [about] but also derives strength” from working together with other members of the new initiative, the President joined 45 other world leaders in launching the Open Government Partnership (OGP) at the Waldorf Astoria hotel.

The Philippines is one of the eight countries—and only one of two from Asia—that make up the OGP Steering Committee. The others are the United States, Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, Norway, the United Kingdom and Mexico.

In a speech, the President expressed thanks “for honoring my country with membership in the OGP Steering Committee.”

“This acknowledges and further strengthens our commitment to promoting transparency, fostering accountability and combating corruption,” he said.

Mr. Aquino said the Philippines’ participation in the initiative was “consistent” with his administration’s “commitment to honest and effective governance.”

He told his audience that he won the presidency in 2010 because Filipinos wanted an open government, and that his administration was bent on achieving this fully with a road map.

The initiative was started in January when a small group of government and civil society leaders met to talk about transforming governance.

US President Barack Obama, who cochairs the OGP, had earlier invited Mr. Aquino to attend the launch, at which they sat beside each other.

According to Ambassador to the United States Jose Cuisia Jr., the Philippines was chosen to be among the founders of the initiative because of Mr. Aquino’s “commitment to good governance and his determination to fight corruption in order to create more jobs for Filipinos and eventually reduce poverty.”

Meaning of democracy

Mr. Aquino said that while Filipinos sought “open and accountable governance” in toppling the Marcos dictatorship in 1986, it was this same desire that moved them to elect him, “a member of the opposition,”  to the presidency.

“This is what democracy is all about: having a government disciplined enough to imbibe in itself the principles of transparency, accountability and citizen involvement—the necessary preconditions to poverty alleviation and inclusive and sustainable economic growth,” he said.

The President also said that just as his administration would continue to wage a campaign “against those who abused power in the past, we are also strengthening institutions through open government.”

“In fact, we have created a road map called the 2012 Philippine Government Action Plan to ensure that our government institutions are at par with international transparency standards,” he said.

He added that the action plan was developed through consultations with civil society and business groups engaged in the integrity advocacy, and would be implemented in January 2012.

Good place for business

“All these efforts are indicators of how serious we are in transforming our system from one that operates through secrecy, impunity and collusion, into a government that embodies transparency, accountability, and citizen engagement—a government that truly exists for its people,” Mr. Aquino said.

In a speech Tuesday night before the Asia Society, the President said the Philippines’ being chosen to be part of the OGP affirmed that it was “a good place to do business in and a good country to do business with.”

In yet another speech at the OGP-related forum “The Power of Open Government: A Global Discussion” at the Google headquarters in New York, Aquino, who was the only head of state to speak there, underscored the importance of governments engaging their people and being open with and transparent to them, especially in the “age of flux” and advanced communication technologies.

Mr. Aquino said there was now “a profound reexamination of the relationship between governments and their citizens” as the world economic system was being “reordered” by the “Arab spring” or political turbulence in the Middle East and the economic turbulence in the United States and Europe.

“At the heart of this reexamination is a fundamental reality that governments throughout history have ignored at their peril: Governments exist at the sufferance of their people,” he said.

Social media

Mr. Aquino said that before communications technologies modernized, governments “could lull themselves into thinking that even if they lacked popular consent, they had the luxury of time to play deaf and dumb to their people’s needs.”

He noted how Filipinos were able to replace the Marcos dictatorship only after 14 years and how, with today’s advanced communications, a people’s struggle against a government could “happen much quicker.”

He also noted how social media could “expose corruption and other abuses, and arouse public opinion to mobilize and reclaim their government.”

“The ever-quickening pace of communications and ever-increasing opportunities for engaging in conversations across sectors and borders is both a boon and a bane,” Mr. Aquino said, pointing out that anyone with access to the Internet could now “reach millions of people and dispense pearls of wisdom, or perversely, misinform and mislead in pursuit of a selfish agenda.”

This is why, he said, governments should engage its citizens in dialogue so as to reinforce openness and make it less tempting for those in power to engage in crime.

“I believe it is incumbent on all of us to confidently assert that governments that do things right should have no problem keeping our fellow citizens informed

and engaged and, thus, partners of government in its fundamental task of addressing the needs of the people,” he said.

Chat with Obama

PAT ON THE BACK. US President Barack Obama puts his hand on the back of President Aquino after Tuesday’s launch of the Open Government Partnership initiative held at the Waldorf Astoria hotel. EDWIN BACASMAS

On the sidelines of the OGP launch, the President told reporters that Obama congratulated him for his achievements in his first year in office.

According to Mr. Aquino, Obama said he had learned that certain people whom the Aquino administration was going after were also resisting its efforts to bring them to justice.

Obama likewise said there were also certain people who were trying to push back his own reforms, Mr. Aquino said, adding:

“Certainly he has many problems, and I told him I wish him the best of luck in addressing all of these.”

Mr. Aquino said that he had invited the US leader to visit Manila, and that the latter said they could talk longer at the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum in Hawaii in November.

He added that Obama was also busy with the US presidential election next year.