Professional Documents
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The second part of his speech is what he wanted to happen. In fairness, as shallow
as the speech was, he was direct. The speech might be devoid of vision, but he was
clear on what he wanted to happen. The promised shock factor was missing.
But if you go back to his speech during the proclamation, he was consistent. He
wanted an inventory of what he was inheriting from the previous administration.
This was just but proper. There really has to be a demarcation line of responsibility.
This was the reason of the first part of the speech by outlining the current state of
the national budget but again, in a very limited form.
Understand that the electorate pushed him to this position with a very clear
mandate and with a very clear wanting: end corruption. Therefore, he was right on
the mark by outlining the fiscal irresponsibility of the previous administration, the
unbelievable waste, abuses and irregularities, ridiculous midnight appointments,
improper and/or wasteful spending or usage of governmental funds, using power or
favoritism over one district as opposed to those districts directly affected by
calamities, in fact, you can call it electioneering for it was well within the campaign
period, if I hear the President correctly.
But while he provided a solid example of what abuse and fiscal irresponsibility by
pushing MWSS in the picture, he stopped short of providing an answer, a penalty, a
punishment to a very important question silently asked by all of us: what are you
going to do with these corrupt MWSS executives? I heard nothing. He only said
something to the effect of a voluntary resignation. I was confused if he was
powerless insofar as these people were concerned.
In my mind, a strong leader would have fired these abusive people already. Why
did he not do anything? If there is an impediment for him to get rid of these people,
why was it not discussed in the speech? Barrio folks will not understand the legal
intricacies as to why these corrupt MWSS officials were still allowed to sit despite
the seemingly positive graft findings discussed in the speech. In the private
enterprise world, it would have been spelled hasta la vista!
One delightful insight though, one mark of a great boss is that if the boss would
have no shame in commending his staff – anywhere. This is what I like from the
President. He mentioned several Cabinet Officials but what stuck in my mind was
his commendation to Mr. Rogelio Singson for discovering some pre-signed contracts
relative to some P3.5 billion allocation and/or a special allotment release order. In
other words, from what I hear, the contracts have already been signed even
without any proper bidding done.
But I also have my own questions on some of the items pointed out by the
President. For example:
But if this is in any way for the opposition to celebrate because the administration is
already wounded even before the battle started, they’d better not forget – this
President is very popular, and I could feel the determination of one President, who
is faced with a very tight fiscal position, seriously wanting reforms in cutting waste,
curbing corruption and apprehending twisted government officials.