Just this afternoon, I attended a well-meaning meeting in one of the secluded beach resorts in Iligan City and we’re talking on a very well-meaning and sensible topic on transparency. It was a discussion lightly presented but in a deeper sense is weighed on a very heavy responsibility.
Rightly said, transparency is the evolved word of honesty in governance and public service. Absence of which can make democracy not meaningful to the people. Basically, transparency is the obligation of the leaders demanded as a right by the citizen in a social-contract concept.
Almost all poor, war ravaged and graft ridden countries worstly failed in being transparent to their citizens. The same is true to all abusive, oppresive and authoritarian governments where citizens have no rights to know or be informed of all government transactions. Failed governments started from not being transparent in all government dealings.
This is now the challenge distributed to us in a very small discussion group about the concept of transparency in the Philippine setting. We remain to be the top leading country in graft and corruption despite the fact that we are democratic and the only Catholic country in Asia. That’s where the challenge begins.
This is not only an obligation on the part of the leaders but this is a matter of right to the responsible citizens as taxpayers. Every single centavo we paid to the government should be accounted and we must all have the right to know where it is going and whether or not the taxpayers’ money are well spent to projects that will redound to the benefit of the people and not to the benefit of the ruling few.
It is a challenge given to us participants in that discussion that we may be thinking about what’s going on the world today but the challenge is we must act local.
From that challenges alone I’ve heard the many critical observations of the other participants on what should be done in the local.
Are our taxes being spent wisely? The guiding questions are to determine the appropriations in the local governance whether these will answer to the well-spent questions and whether these appropriations are articulated to the public as something the will redound to their public benefit.
Because it is being practiced by some oppressive governments where budgets are hidden in a vague languages incomprehinsible by the citizens for reasons that it will become the source of graft and corruption of the irresponsible and erring public leaders.
This, according to the presiding leader in our discussion, is very manifest in Philippine political setting particularly in the distribution of pork barrels in every localities. Pork barrels are sometimes shown to the public as practiced in the House of Representative where one can clearly see the share of every congressman. But in some Cities or municipalities, sharing of pork barrels are hidden from the eye of the taxpayers - sometimes the hiding places are in the other regular appropriations in the local budgets such as the intelligence funds or in the creation of fictional or non-functioning committees in the local council.
Hiding of pork barrel in the regular appropriations is practiced in the local government where the chief executive is weak and controlled by the many, conspiring other local officials who will be benefited personally by the said pork barrel. The politics of the many is arm twisting with a weak single leadership. This manner will help in the draining out of the major resources of the government.
Another practice is the availment of loan from financial institutions where it’s us the people who are going to pay the loan. Without transparency, loans can make a local government bankrupt because of the multiple loans and all government funds are now being guarranteed in its payments. Sometimes the conniving and conspiring activities of all those involved and without transparency will make almost fifty percent of the loan going to the very deep pockets of the local leaders.
The topic is very inspiring it is because many of the proactive NGOs working for good governance are too much focused in the global area, and being a new bred leader, the challenge is for us to monitor what is going on in the local. By their own observations, worst is happening in the local level. It is no more oppressive national government but oppressive local governments because they failed to institute transparency.
This is the time to act soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment