SO far, over 100 mayors have signed the manifesto of the Mayor for Good Governance movement spearheaded by Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong.
Since the start of the campaign to “uphold the principles of good governance,” principally against graft and corruption, Magalong has become the target of an incessant demolition offensive, mainly in the secular and social media as well as in social and political circles. He said he was “prepared for the worst.”
Obviously, he didn’t think the attacks against him would turn vicious, with one even alleging on social media that his two daughters had become prostitutes.
‘The initial test for the mayors who have signed the manifesto is to ensure the coming Sangguniang Kabataan and barangay elections are genuinely clean and honest.’
The initial test for the mayors who have signed the manifesto is to ensure the coming Sangguniang Kabataan and barangay elections are genuinely clean and honest.
It is a given fact that barangay officials and employees have been regular recipients of large dole-outs from mayors and congressmen, especially during elections. They need to ensure their political hold on their constituencies by corrupting barangay officials and employees. Much of the campaign funds during the SK and barangay elections, coming from governors, mayors and congressmen, are freely distributed among the voters.
Mayors should not allow this to happen, a showcase of the mockery of democracy in our country. The most regrettable and disturbing consequence of holding elections down to the community level is the youth of our land learning and embracing corruption at an early age, with scions of political dynasties showing the way.
“To maintain the highest standards of integrity and transparency in all aspects of local governance,” as the manifesto partly reads, errant signatories must give up their fat commissions in government projects which, according to Magalong, have gone up to 40 percent.
Magalong said the information has been provided by numerous local officials and former ranking government officials, such as department undersecretaries and bureau directors.
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The following is an unforgettable and amazing example of how a public university president turned her back on easy, big money.
Leny De Jesus, then President of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM), had cringed at the thought of how to deal with corrupt and mulcting City Hall and DPWH officials when former Mayor Erap Estrada offered her some P300 million for the construction of a college building at the university premises in Intramuros.
She knew she would face a big battle to make sure the construction would be free from salivating grafters and professional extortionists. De Jesus (who served as chief of the Presidential Management Staff under three Presidents) turned down the offer (Bless her!) and instead requested Estrada to allow City Hall to handle and supervise the large project and to turn it over to PLM after all was done. And that’s how it happened.
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Jonathan Malaya, the deputy director general of the National Security Council, said the reported kidnapping of two women environmental activists was a hoax.
For a while, many speculated the two were abducted by the military or police, as some witnesses have reportedly claimed.
The reported abduction brought to mind the harrowing tale of two female UP students whose kidnapping, torture and disappearance had been ordered by the notorious Gen. Jovito Palparan, who has been sentenced to life imprisonment. The students have not been heard from since.
Malaya said the two, who he claimed were members of the communist movement, had decided to leave the movement. The two women were a student and a graduate of the Bulacan State University.
