VP Binay’s t-shirt
A DEPARTMENT head of a local government unit in Cebu was asked to accompany his boss to the house of Vice President Jejomar Binay for a breakfast meeting. Part of his preparations for the event was to purchase a new suit. After all, he was going to meet the number two official of the land.
On the appointed day, the department head accompanied his boss with butterflies in his stomach, but he felt confident in his new suit.
Much to his surprise, Binay welcomed them in a white shirt and a pair of shorts.
“Perhaps the shirt is a very expensive one,” thought the department head to himself, so he checked the shirt for a brand, but he found none.
He could not help telling friends later that Binay’s aide was more brand conscious. “Maypa iyang aide, naka-Lacoste (His aide was wearing Lacoste),” he noted.
Silence as precious as gold
Amid the noise over the pork barrel scam in Congress, some former legislators have kept their silence. Some speculators wonder if their silence is caused by fear the ax will fall in their direction if they’re heard making even a scratch. Even former legislators who are allies of the powers-that-be are keeping mum, hoping the public won’t find their names in the lengthy COA report.
There are some who have not been subjected to the special audit, which only covers legislators’ PDAF spending from 2007 to 2009.
Government watchers hope that COA would also go through 2010 to 2013 PDAF spending with the same due diligence. It would be interesting to note what state auditors would say about some congressmen who spend their PDAF outside their jurisdiction. In the 2007-2009 special audit, the COA noted that pork barrel funds spent elsewhere deprive the constituents of certain benefits that the legislator they voted into power could have given them.
Unseeing eyes
A barangay official told reporters that he was unaware of illegal activities in his village, namely cyberpornography.
Perhaps the village official was telling the truth. But a village is like an extended family, and every member eventually gets to hear something as exciting as computer systems being delivered, Internet connection being installed and several trips to the money transfer outlet. So after the first raid, the barangay officials cannot possibly claim innocence, can they?
The case reminds a Bzzzzz source of an official in an islet in northern Cebu. During a speech, the official of the island baranagay scolded the media for reporting that there were as much as 10 blasts a day by dynamite fishermen within the territorial waters of his village. He said media reports weren’t true. Then someone from the audience spoke up; it was the local social worker. She said the news report was indeed wrong: “it isn’t 10 but 20 dynamite blasts a day.” The village official could not have known this because he rarely went to the islet as he lived in the mainland, said the social worker.