Bunked

In urban dictionary, the word bunked means to skip something, such as an event, school, or work. That was what I thought of the news on the overpriced, substandard bunkhouses built by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). Nothing new there especially then the secretary, together with the DSWD Secretary and BSA3 themselves visited the area and saw the 126 bunkhouses build in December of last year. They didn’t notice anything wrong. It was through a leak to the media that we got wind of the anomalous construction.

Bar has been lowered

Three years and then some, we have accepted that substandard is the norm in public service. From the bunkhouses to the “burned out” Cabinet, to the critics making a living from being critical to the need to rest. When it used to be the best and the brightest served government, today, we have barkada lording it over technocrats simply because proximity to power is the virtue some people in this administration requires.

Last two-minute gambit: Go SARO-less

When there is no closure yet on the so-called faked Special Allotment Release Orders (SAROs), the Php879 Million farm-to-market roads with bogus signatures and PDAF releases from 2010 to 2013 have not been fully reviewed by Commission on Audit (COA) and the Department of Justice cherry picking on whom to persecute, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is at it again, sweeping the dirt under the rug. COA has admitted that its inability to finish the audit of the Aquino II years is a direct result of DBM’s uncooperativeness by not providing relevant documents. Here now comes DBM announcing to all and sundry that a budgetary reform has been instituted calling it a: “GAA-as-release-document” regime. From DAP, here is another genius of a move of a cabinet secretary who has not been taken to tasks by the appointing authority for all the budgetary somersaults and contortions he has made.