April 30, 2009 · Posted in: Governance, Investigative Reports
Arroyo sons, friends, foes get big public-works deals
Our latest offering is a two-part report on how politics drive the award of public-works contracts.
The first part written by senior journalist Tita C. Valderama, PCIJ training director, reveals how two sons in Congress of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, but also other political allies and some of her political foes, have secured comparatively bigger volumes and values of civil-works contracts.
From the online database of 27,535 projects awarded by the Department of Public Works and Highways from 2000 to 2008, a mixed picture emerges — that of both friends and some foes nearly satiated with contracts for their congressional districts, while most other have been starved.
Still, a singular narrative string flows through the story: a viral kind of politics has been institutionalized in the awarding of contracts by the DPWH. This is exacerbated as well by the phenomenon of pork barrel, congressional insertions and various lump-sum funds from which politicians have dipped their fingers, at will almost, to roll out their pet projects.
Read on at pcij.org.
1 Response to Arroyo sons, friends, foes get big public-works deals
RLTJ
May 3rd, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Either we have laws prohibiting public officials from easily dipping their hands in public coffers or we do not have them in place yet. And if we do not have them in place yet, I bet we wont have them in place for some time. The name of the game is pakapalan ng mukha na lang.[I don’t see anybody among our presidential aspirants to change the run of things. I really wish I am mistaken about that.]
I remember the late Governor Bordallo of Guam. He tied then shot himself in public [so that he died of gunshot and by hanging]. He did the acts in protest of what he believed was cruel justice. The reason? Some relative got public work contract, which he claimed happened beyond his knowledge. And, convicted, he was about to pay for it in jail!
But then nangyayari lamang ito sa mga bansa kung saan may hiya ang mga tao. Until then it appears Filipinos must suffer.