INJUSTICE: THE ROOT CAUSE OF CORRUPTION
CEBU, APRIL 9, 2008 (STAR) INSIDE CEBU By Bobit S. Avila - Last April 3rd Thursday, our fellow Star columnist Federico D. Pascual, Jr. wrote in his column Postscript a very explosive article about the National Power Corp. (Napocor) entitled “NAPOCOR GIVES P956-M CONTRACT TO P62,500 FIRM.” What caught my eye was that this firm just happened to be based in Cebu! As we gathered from that article (which he originally wrote in his Mar. 27th column) Napocor awarded a contract to this firm known as PT Marsitero Marloan Prakasrsa/Transpacific Consolidated Resources, Inc. (TCRI) for a coal supply that was grossly out of proportion to its financial capability. Shades of Cris Saavedra’s company?
When I checked my own sources on this story, we ended in a blank wall. Hence I still have to get some info as to whether this company existed in Cebu? Perhaps this is because that company doesn’t have an office in Cebu, but at the business center in Danara Hotel Quezon City or elsewhere?
As Pascual wrote, “Worse, a check with the hotel showed that the business center misrepresented as the TCRI address was no longer operating two months before its address was used. How were the important papers sent and delivered? In the notice of award, TCRI had a new address Room 2405, Atlanta Center in Annapolis, Greenhills, San Juan. Like a nomad, TCRI changes addresses often – from Danao City in Cebu, to the Danara Hotel in Quezon City, to Atlanta Center in San Juan in just three months!”
For sure, the depository bank that TCRI used called Peninsula Rural Bank is as obscure as the company dealing with it. Pascual mentions a certain Wilfredo Tuadles as the only incorporator that submitted his community tax or cedula in registering this company.
Indeed, Pascual has stumbled on another government corporation allegedly mired in graft and corruption and I submit that none of the local Cebu based newspapers got this story. For sure this is a mere tip of the iceberg as far as Napocor is concerned. This is one government corporation that is zero on transparency. More than a decade ago, I stumbled into a mess in Napocor about their buying a crankshaft for a diesel engine as a spare. One would think that this was a very positive move by Napocor.
However after years of storage one of its diesel engines needed a new crankshaft and it was time to use the brand new spare. But when it was installed, the diesel engine shook violently and it was learned that the crankshaft was already misaligned. It turned out, a huge machined part like that had a stringent maintenance schedule that wasn’t followed. So the part which Napocor procured at P7 million was plain junk and a new one had to be purchased for P12 million. So the question is, was anyone fired or held responsible or accountable for this faux pas? Nope, the biggest loser is the taxpayer, while the incompetent employees still got their usual pay.
How many government agencies are there engaged in similar corrupt practices? I’m sure we don’t have enough columnists like Mr. Pascual or reporters to look into scams like this. But should we pin the blame on the crooks-disguised-as-government-bureaucrats? Actually the blame is squarely on the foot of our snail paced justice system. If the Office of the Ombudsman did their job well, when Mr. Pascual exposed this story last Mar. 27th, they should have swooped down at the Napocor offices and did their due diligence and handcuffed the guilty parties.
I guess this is why Cebuanos did not come out to listen to the talk of whistleblower Eng. Rodolfo Lozada Jr. when he came to Cebu during Holy Week because we already know that it was useless to listen to him talking again about the ZTE-NBN scam which was a case of an attempted bribery, when Cebu has its own celebrated corruption cases like the infamous Lamppost scam or the Girls Scout scam of then Rep. Clavel Asas Martinez where government funds was allegedly deposited in her personal bank account. Today the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas merely washes their hands on these cases, passing the buck to Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez.
Because the Ombudsman is inutile in catching crooks in government service, we are now seeing corruption at a grand scale. So no one gets surprised when the Philippines is tagged as one of the most corrupt countries that it is because when a corrupt government official knows that justice is slow to react even when these rats are exposed in columns then they have become callus to even such exposes’. Again I’d like to reiterate to our readers that the root cause of our problems regarding corruption is plain and simple injustice or lack of justice. Give us an Ombudsman that can decide whom to indict in a month and believe me, corruption will slowly diminish.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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