‘Purging regime’

There’s simmering public discontent over inflation from rising fuel prices due to a hefty excise tax (and a VAT on the excise tax). So it’s good to see President Duterte cracking down on junkets of public servants and even firing those he considers to be avid globetrotters at taxpayers’ expense.

The Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion or TRAIN Law is raising public awareness of each person’s financial contributions to the government, about 99.9 percent of which is collected automatically through VAT.

That awareness should create taxpayers who demand the judicious use of their money, through clean and efficient governance.

Last week Duterte vowed that his presidency would be a “purging regime.” Among the surest paths to being purged, he says, are corruption and a propensity for foreign junkets.

His purge will be most effective if he can show that this is not just an excuse to get rid of remnants of the Aquino administration and leftists in government.

Critics have pointed out that some of his appointees are themselves behaving like professional tourists at taxpayers’ expense, and they’re not from the Department of Foreign Affairs.

If his “purging regime” is all about austerity, living simply and fighting graft, he will also have to lead by example and stop rewarding loyal supporters with trips accompanying him in his overseas travels. Every person in his traveling contingent must leave no doubt that he or she deserves to be there in the interest of public service.

The impact of TRAIN is just starting to kick in. People who are now seeing all their monthly bills going up will not be amused if they even suspect that TRAIN earnings are bankrolling the foreign travels of Duterte loyalists. Insisting that these travelers are footing their own expenses won’t wash.

It would also help if the President could draw on his immense popularity to persuade his allies in Congress and local governments to tame their travel bug. Many lawmakers embark on foreign trips at the drop of a hat, bringing along with them the largest entourage possible whose expenses can be charged to Juan de la Cruz.

* * * Over the weekend the buzz was that the next chairman headed for Duterte’s chopping block is Patricia Licuanan, who has a little over six months left in her second term at the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

Licuanan, who chaired the CHED throughout the presidency of Noynoy Aquino, undertook eight foreign trips in 2017. While this falls short of the 12 trips specified by Duterte as the yearly limit in a speech last Friday night, Licuanan’s absence of 41 days in all from the office last year is being partly blamed by her detractors for the delay in the release of allowances for CHED scholars under its K-12 transition program. Critics have also called her out for flying on business class.

Licuanan has blamed the delays in the release of the scholars’ allowances on the required documentation for a new program and has stressed that “only” 933 scholars, not 9,500 as her critics claim, have not yet received their allowances.

As for her foreign trips, all were approved by Malacañang, she said. Cabinet members and other agency heads are allowed to take business class for long-haul flights, she explained. Plus she said she occasionally gets vertigo. That last part won’t earn her sympathy from those who can only dream of a flight upgrade as they suffer from deep-vein thrombosis, a.k.a. economy class syndrome.

The CHED is under the Office of the President, and there is no legal impediment for Duterte to fire the commission’s chairman any time. Licuanan is hoping she will be allowed to finish her second term, which ends this July 20.

* * * Licuanan, who holds Cabinet rank, was banned from meetings of the Duterte Cabinet in 2016, after Vice President Leni Robredo was also given the same instruction and resigned as head of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council. Robredo cited “differences” with Duterte over certain matters, notably the burial of dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Duterte allies insisted that Robredo was effectively fired from the Cabinet.

Unlike Robredo, Licuanan did not resign. Now critics and Duterte allies are urging her to, or else she could be fired ostensibly for wrongdoing – if not corruption, then for violating the code of conduct and ethical standards for public servants.

Licuanan says she traveled eight times last year, five times in 2016, six in the previous year, two in 2014 and three in 2013. She does not consider this travel record excessive, and stresses that all were meant to promote joint higher education programs with other countries.

Undoubtedly, all officials and employees in government who have embarked on official foreign trips will have similar explanations. Many are telling the truth, but there are others who truly abuse their positions and waste precious public funds on foreign junkets. People will support any honest-togoodness purge of these crooks.

But the “purging regime” will work best if Duterte is an equal opportunity tormentor of globetrotters in government. He has accused the ombudsman of dispensing selective justice. He should avoid accusations of conducting a selective purge.