Young City Councilor Wanted Transparency, Instead Threatened With Disciplinary Action

An idealistic young city councilor sent this email to Randy David. Published with permission.

Dear Sir Randy,

I'm [name] from, an alumna of the AYLC program from year 2002. I got so moved by the challenges you posed upon us during the congress that it prompted me to define my sphere of influence and work my way towards contributing what I can to achieve what when then termed active citizenship. Five years after, inclusive of my abandoned three years from a lucrative work, I ran for public office and got elected as 4th city councilor.

Though not monumental, I try daily to make a mark in this field I chose for myself. Recently, I tried to block a proposed ordinance allowing land conversion and granting of special use permit for motel operations in a particular barangay. Not needing to even discuss morality issues, I was certain that the barangay concerned greatly opposed to such proposal for several reasons. Upon knowing that a committee hearing has already been conducted by the chairperson, without even ensuring my presence there (as chairperson of the committee on women and family), I became concerned about the proceedings of the motel's approval.

Come the next session, the said committee calendared and put the committee report in the agenda, furnishing all members of the City Council a copy of their recommendation. Since the chairperson was absent during the said session, it was never discussed. Based on the report, the committee is recommending for the motel's approval, citing that there is no apparent reason to deny its establishment. It was apparent as well that the concerned Barangay Captain has concurred with the chairperson, and acted by issuing a clearance (a public hearing in the barangay was never conducted).

At this point, I deemed it proper to share a copy of such report to my mentor who belonged to the barangay where the motel was applying to be established. Upon learning of such recommendation, he immediately convened the community members and launched a signature campaign to protest the same. He even mobilized people to attend our next session, wherein the committee chairperson felt pressured to withdraw said committee report and cited he needed to further study the matter. Needless to say, the barangay chalked a victory, at least on that date.

It was however during the next session where a member of the said committee, through his privilege speech, lambasted my actions of furnishing a copy of the committee report to my mentor. He called such action unethical and demanded that I be subjected to disciplinary actions. I responded by questioning our internal rules and regulations, on wheter such has been explicitly stated that no member of the Sangguniang Panlungsod may furnish a copy of the committee report to the public. That the IRR being silent on such matter, it is therefore logical that a public proceeding conducted by a public official will eventually produce a public document for the consumption of the concerned individuals. I further stressed that such document, being officially calendared, stated in the agenda and distributed to the members of the council, meant that it is being publicly presented for open debating by the members of the council--who are in fact just representatives of the x number of constituents who voted for them.

In this regard, and considering you as a highly-esteemed polical analyst, insignificant as my question may seem compared to the issues you tackle in Public Lives, may I know of your take on the said debate?

Being a 25-year old neophyte in politics, I try my hard to be a team player yet keep my integrity intact. I shall humbly submit myself to asking for apology should my actions indeed prove unethical. But I want it to come from an unbiased and credible observer, from one (who) devotes his time annually to inspire new generation of leaders.

Thank you very much for reading my inquiry. And thank you for being instrumental in my taking a leap of faith towards the direction I am headed now...


Yours,
[name]

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Hi [name],

Thank you for your letter. I am glad to see that a young person like you is in politics. I think you did the right thing in passing on a copy of the committee report to a citizen of the barangay concerned. In the absence of any explicit prohibition against making public such committee reports, you are not liable for any breach of confidence. You are not part of a private management group. You are not sworn to secrecy. But to be on the safe side, I would advise you to seek the counsel of a trusted lawyer on this issue. The essence of public office is precisely transparency. As an elected councilor, you represent a constituency. and you are obliged by your office to participate actively in debates such as this and to mobilize public support for your advocacies. Good luck, and never be afraid.

Randy David

Asked For 16 Million Kickback: A First-Hand Experience

The last three years of my career was spent in one of the most prestigious heavy equipment companies in the Philippines. I was one of the managers of the company. Aside from dealing equipments with the private and government institutions, I have to oversee the delivered equipments, facilitate trainings for operators and mechanics. Usually, I talk to significant people to transact my business (congressmen, Governors, and Mayors the vice governors and vice mayors), who are usually in-charge of contracts and projects.

One of the episodes in my selling career that I will always remember was when I deal with a local government in Mindanao. The heavy equipment requirement involved a multi million peso government loan. If I remember it exactly, the loan amounts to PhP80M. The purchase requirement was to buy a fleet of various heavy equipments for construction.

After some times of requesting an appointment to talk with the person authorized to facilitate the transaction, I finally got an appointment to face him. The guy was a high ranking government official. He was young, brilliant and looks respectable. I feel good that the person I was going to talk to looks calm and descent. But to my surprise, just when I sat in front of him, handing to him my book bounded proposal, he directly asked me without hesitation.

"How much do you offer to us? Your competitor offered us 30% on Bulldozers, 20% on Graders and Rollers, and also with the back hoes..."

I was shocked!

During that time, a medium size brand new bulldozer fit for their needs costs around to 8 Million pesos the lowest. Backhoe that time costs around 4 to 5 Million. Twenty (20) % of 5 Million is P1, 000,000.00. Setting commission straight at Twenty percent of 80 Million loan, total kickback would be 16,000,000.00 PhP.

Unbelievable but that is true.

Who will pay the overpricing?

You must know that the heavy equipment company will not give what is asked by the buyer. Instead, the heavy equipment company will add 20 or 30% over and above the selling price. The moment the equipment is purchased, the public will be paying the cost and overpricing of the purchased equipments in forms of high taxes. That is the reason why the E-vat is imposed. E-vat will help expedite payment of the surcharges and overpricing. Do you realize why current prices of commodities are soaring high? Election is near. Next year the heavy equipment market will be in frenzy. I tell you...

Today, our government, even the president pledged to weed out corruption, but you will wonder why corruption on heavy equipments is not solved. When I researched the internet, I even learned that the guy that I was dealing with became one of the president’s trusted guy after his term in his region. He was promoted maybe because he was "doing his job well" during his term.

The Culprit

1. We are too passive
   We don’t care what’s going on. Purchase of new equipment in your area does not necessarily mean progress. You need to explore and know the implication behind it. Always think that before government officials shows care, they care their pocket first.


2. We refuse to see the bigger picture
   We sold our votes during election. How do they get back the money they gave to the voters? Of course by corruption. How can a candidate get back of his millions expenses during campaign with the limited number of years in service? We should elect people to the post who can bring us to the right vision for the Philippines.


3. We are too contented, No vision for a better Philippines
   We need to rise-up, we need to awaken ourselves. We need to realize that there are still generations behind us. We need to convince ourselves that the kind of Philippines we’ll be leaving to the younger generations depends on our assertion and our labor. Yes, God will always help us, but how can he defend us if we refuse to protect ourselves?

The NEED of the hour

We need to join together; we need to join our hands, our minds and effort.
The Petition for Philippine Access to Information Law is a good move for All Filipino citizens to be adequately informed about the operations and policies of the Philippine government. Freedom of Information laws promotes transparent governance by ensuring access to information or records. Join NOW!

By: Headquarterman

Help Prevent Corruption By Petitioning a Philippine Access to Information Law

Dear Friends and Fellow Filipinos,

Good day to you! :)

In light of the recent spate of scandals and allegations of corruption in our government, we at Team RP believe that the call for Truth and Accountability in our government should not stop in the investigations that are being conducted by our Senate, Ombudsman and our Judicial System but this should also be complemented with a push for a Philippine Access to Information Law that would help prevent future graft and corruption practices by many of our government officials from happening again. By enacting this law, ordinary Filipinos will now be able to access public documents which would narrate what kind of agreements our government enters into on behalf of the Filipino people and at the same time show us how our public funds are spent. This will increase transparency in our government and will further hold our government leaders and officials accountable for their actions.

In line with this, we are launching a Signature Campaign to help convince our lawmakers towards prioritizing the immediate passing and implementation of this law. Here is Team RP's petition on pushing for a Philippine Access to Information Law:

"Secrecy breeds irregularity, fraud and crime. It allows chicanery, graft and corruption. A democracy based on ignorance, on misinformation, on conjectures, on suspicion is doomed to fail. The more enlightened the people have, the more guarantee there is for their success in their collective enterprises, and in the fulfillment of their social aspirations and purposes."

From the de Venecia-Lozada expose, the Hello Garci scandal and the Spratlys mind-boggler to the North and South Rail questions, events of the recent past clearly highlight how very little we know about the workings of our government, how much difficulty is involved in getting truth to come out and how, albeit fundamental in any republican and democratic state that the government is accountable to the public, we Filipinos are in reality denied direct access to our government institutions and our public servants. As a country that prides itself with democracy, it strikes us with a disquieting reality that we Filipinos have no real access to information to empower us to properly and actively participate in governance.

We in TEAM RP believe that in order for there to be a responsible citizenry that can actively and meaningfully craft the future of the country, there is a need to give teeth to the policy of full public disclosure and the right of the people to be informed as contained in the fundamental law of the land. Moreover, we are aware that if people, especially those who have been bypassed by development, are unaware of laws and procedures for availing themselves of their entitlements or of mechanisms they can use to remedy their plight, then they will always remain poor.

Let us call on our lawmakers to make top priority the passage of a Philippine Access to Information Law which, subject to reasonable and clearly outlined conditions, ensures unfettered access of the people to information of public concern, including government transactions involving public interest.

We urge our lawmakers, let us not delay this any further.

If you support our petition and call for the passage of a Philippine Access to Information Law, you can join and help us in any of the following ways:

a.) Sign our petition online by emailing "I Support the Campaign for a Philippine Access to Information Law" together with your complete name and contact information to team.rp.pail@gmail.com

b.) Forward this email to your friends and post this email in your website, blog, friendster, multiply or facebook account for all your friends to read.

c.) Volunteer for our campaign and help us get more Filipinos to sign our petition. If you want to volunteer and help, you can email Karen Naranjo at k_ren_naranjo@yahoo.com or you can send her a text message at 0918-9183685. We will send you copies of our petition so you can also help gather signatures in your school, office or organization.

Thank you for your time in reading this email. We hope that you will consider joining Team RP's movement for Truth, Accountability and Reform in our country.

May you have a pleasant day ahead! :)

Sincerely,

Harvey S. Keh

Chairperson

Team RP

Team RP is an organization of youth leaders and young professionals who working together for Truth, Accountability and Reform in our country. We are part of the Buong Bayan Isinisigaw Tama Na, Itama Na (BUSINA) Movement. We believe that complaining and lambasting our leaders is not enough but we should proactively work towards finding concrete ways to help solve our present problems. As such, Team RP believes that issues should always take precedence over personalities thus, our programs and activities are always geared towards helping build our democratic institutions and furthering the development of every Filipino. If you want to know more about Team RP or join Team RP, please email us at team.rp.official@gmail.com

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[SUGGESTED SUBJECT: Please join me in signing the petition for the Philippine Freedom of Information Act]

Hi,

I'd like to invite you to join me in supporting the Philippine Freedom of Information Act currently pending in the senate. Freedom of Information laws help fight corruption by guaranteeing public access to government information and records.

The country needs our help to ensure the Freedom of Information Act is passed in 2008, before the start of campaigning in 2009. Please show our legislators you support the act by taking a few seconds to sign the online petition here: http://satotootayo.blogspot.com/

Thanks!

[YOUR NAME]