Probe pandemic expenditures
Pamintuan, son of former Mayor Ed Pamintuan, Jericho Genaskey Aguas, Maricel Morales, the pretty actress and Alex Indiongco owner of the Funeraria Indiongco. The acronym was taken from the first letter of their family names. It proved to be effective. They all won in 2013 and got big chunks of votes.
Maricel Morales was on her last term and had to take a three year respite in politics though not in entertainment business. She appeared on some telenovelas. Morales was temporarily out in 2016 elections. There’s a clamor for her to stage a comeback in the forthcoming 2022 elections. The same clamor for Bryan Nepomuceno and Edu Pamintuan to run in he forthcoming race.( What about me? No clamor.)
In the 2016 elections there were 24 who were in the council race. I was in the 11th spot and failed to be in the win column. Maybe because there were three Sangils in that race. There must be some confusion on some voters. Barangay Pulong Cacutud Tony Trinidad, Amsic Barangay Captain Gerom Pamintuan Costales and myself failed to make the cut.
Politics involves marketing. Tarpaulins are commonly used. But there are also other channels. Candidates are sending their messages via tarpaulins which are posted on strategic locations. And this has to be supported by house to house campaigns but the Commission on Elections may prohibit such because of the pandemic. Caucuses or meetings and maximizing technology via mostly Facebook twitter, instagram and viber are the alternatives. Television and commentary programs on prime time radio are still very useful in reaching the grassroots.
In any case the former outstanding councilors like Morales, Nepomuceno and Pamintuan will decide to join the council race, it will be interesting to watch who among the incumbents will be affected. Presently the newcomers in the Angeles City council are JC Parker, Thelma Indiongco, Rako Del Rosario and Niknok Baniola.
How we wish the country’s top leader would honor his word, given in 2016, and echoed in many occasions thereafter: “Huwag na huwag talaga akong makarinig na corruption, (not) even a whiff or whisper. I will fire you or place you somewhere. Mamili kayo: ComVal (Compostela Valley), Jol o?”
The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on the use of Covid-19 response funds revealed not just a whiff or a whisper, but dark air wafting ominously of irregularities.
Most glaring of all is the granting of contracts amounting to a total of P8.7 billion to newbie medical supplier firm Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp, created in September 2019. The firm, which only had a paid-up capital of P625,000, does not even appear in the Philippine Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) database for previous contracts.
The Philippine procurement law says that for a firm to qualify, it must have similar projects worth at least 50 percent of the contract it is currently bidding for. As Pharmally was supposedly bidding for a multi-billion worth of supplies, its financial state must have shown a Net Financial Contracting Capacity of at least equal to the project cost.
The favored Pharmally edged out more qualified bidders, getting almost half of the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management’s (PS-DBM) P20.9 billion
worth of contracts for pandemic response supplies such as test kits, extraction machines and personal protective equipment.
Pharmally was owned by a certain “Filipino” named Huang Tzu Yen, according to Securities and Exchange Commission records. It turned out that Huang is linked to the President’s former economic adviser Michael Yang through a network of companies.
Pharmally’s contracts with the DBM were mostly signed by then PS-DBM undersecretary Lloyd Christopher Lao, who in the Senate hearing admitted to having failed to check the articles of incorporation as far as Pharmally was concer ned.
To that Sen. Panfilo Lacson reacted: “It is either there was no due diligence for reason of collusion, or they were lazy to exercise diligence, or they are sloppy, which I don’t want to believe...being the PS-DBM, a trained and experienced procuring entity of the government...I wonder how they were able to award the procurement of billions of these items?”
These pieces of information merit an investigation “at the very least” by the Ombudsman, said Sen. Franklin Drilon.
Many of the personalities that surfaced in the hearing point to a caballing network of Davao businessmen close to the President, a “whiff” that could exude top-level corruption. What made the situation worse is that the President is at a childish offensive, taking a swipe at the senators’person instead of replying to the allegations of irregularities head-on. The President could be panicking, as Lacson pointed out.
Government’s way out of these allegations can only be paved by facts, not by a President calling out the hairstyles of political adversaries. (Sunnex)