Saturday, June 30, 2007

Sniffing Dogs Needed in Government Offices

I just attended an anti corruption seminar at Lasalle university in Manila. It was funded by the Asia foundation purposely to equip the Northern Luzon Coalition on Good Governance,an umbrella organization of different monitoring groups in region 1,2 and CAR. The seminar is primarily aimed at customizing corruption prevention, tools, modules for engaging Local Government Units in Northern Luzon. The two day workshop was very educational on my part because I was able to realize that corruption can only be contained in our government if the top leaders will genuinely initiate reforms to curb the corrupt practices being done in the country today.The seminar reminded me of our plight to help the government catch some people involved in pocketing millions of pesos from the proceeds of a ghost reforestation project in Maligcong Mt. Province PHIL. but its ironic because they seem not interested in catching the thieves! These government offices in charge of prosecuting culprits move only when someone is diligently following up the case who traveled far from the province, what happens if he gets tired sick or is dead? The law gives ultimatums for answering requests and motions but it is not effective if no one complains,its impossible to be filing complaints in every office because every office have the same practice. why cant the government place sniffing dogs to expose the rotten practices?Why can't the government check all its agencies if their web site is functional so the citizens can help sniff too they can be helpful. I tried emailing the Ombudsman,Department of justice and the commission on audit regarding our plight of very slow action on their part but until this day we got no feed back. You have to go to their office personally only to be informed that the office is waiting for the response of another office before it will move. Complainants traveled for long hours to these offices yet the pain they encountered is never reckoned with.