THERE is a dreadful disease that has infected our top officials in government for a very long time now. They always mistake public office entrusted to them by the people as their personal empire.
This happens when accountability is ignored resulting in power being abused. A time when authority is mistaken for immunity.
Let me cite the case of Gov. Luis Raymund “L-Ray” Villafluerte Jr. of Camarines Sur, erstwhile congressman and once a flamboyant top gun of the League of Provinces of the Philippines, where he used to hug the national headlines.
Villafluerte, including his vice governor, Salvio Patrick Fortuno Jr., and his loyal factotums at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan were recently indicted before the Ombudsman for pulling off a controversial P3.5-billion loan with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).
From reports, the staggering borrowing was allegedly accomplished in a blink of an eye sans the essential list of projects, like feasibility studies, program of works and requisite committee hearings before the proposal was presented to the plenary for approval.
It was allegedly done with deliberate haste and in erring silence. And that is how corruption often survives, not because nobody sees it but because too many of our people decide it is safer not to look and get involved.
There are indeed moments when silence ceases to be neutrality and becomes complicity. An erring silence is not the silence of wisdom but the silence of convenience — the calculated refusal to speak because speaking carries a cost.
Sadly, there are some officials in the government who imagine that the exalted office they occupy has somehow sanctified their ambitions to commit wrongdoing. Public money becomes private property and competence is sacrificed before the altar of patronage.
The tragedy is not merely that such powerful leaders exist, but that too many of our people in the country, especially in local government units ruled by strongmen, grow accustomed to them in their localities.
Such that the most effective cover-up often requires no conspiracy. It requires only officials who refuse to cooperate, legislators who refuse to ask and citizens too distracted to notice the crime committed before their eyes.
This is the time when silence is no longer golden. It simply becomes the color of surrender. True enough, the loudest ally of wrongdoing is not the liar, but the silent witness.
The most dangerous public officials are not only those who steal money from government coffers but also those who slowly destroy public trust by believing that they are above scrutiny, above criticism and above the very law they were sworn to uphold.
But not the Crimes and Corruption Watch International Inc. (CCWI), an anti-crime watchdog, whose crusading chairman, Dr. Carlo Batalla, wreathed as a “datu” and a “sultan” by different tribes in Mindanao for his philanthropic advocacy in addition to his many awards and laurels in both public and private life, gallantly charged the respondents before the Ombudsman.
Despite the mandatory number of days under the Anti-Red Tape Law for the governor’s office to respond to the CCWI inquiries, none were issued to clarify such issues as loan terms, lender identity, list of projects, repayment schedule, collateral ordinance and budget impact, among others, to justify the instant loan.
Reports said that it took the Sangguniang Panlalawigan just one short day to approve the P3.5-billion term loan between the provincial government of Camarines Sur and the DBP. The deal was eventually signed sometime in February this year.
With such a gargantuan budget allocation, it can already be used to construct 7,000 classrooms at P500,000 per unit, or build a similar number of barangay clinics for the province’s 1,063 barangay, or procure 1,750 units of ambulances at P2 million per unit for its 35 towns and two component cities.
Yet the approved loan only hurriedly identified a P1.16-billion allotment for hazy projects. So, what will happen to the balance of P2.34 billion? Will part of this budget go to road openings, asphalt overlays or flood control structures where the SOPs are simply tempting? Your guess is as good as mine.
When a top public official uses influence to silence critics, manipulate institutions and protect questionable transactions, the issue is no longer merely political. It becomes a moral failure and a betrayal of public trust.
Corruption appears through abuse of discretion, manipulation of government processes and deliberate weakening of accountability mechanisms. Indeed, some officials build a fortress around themselves and hide behind their borrowed titles.
A government position is not a personal possession. It is a temporary responsibility. The power given by the people carries with it a duty of humility, transparency and accountability.
The public deserves officials who understand that power is borrowed, not owned.
The matter now rests with the office of the country’s top crime buster, Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla. If the documentary evidence warrants it, Remulla, as he has shown in recent days, must act swiftly and without fear or favor.
The public deserves a prompt, impartial and thorough investigation, wherever the evidence may lead. The Ombudsman was created not merely to receive complaints but to pursue them with independence, diligence and resolve.
Public confidence is strengthened not by promises of accountability, but by accountability of action.