In recent years the lexicon of Philippine society has been ‘enriched’ with old words that have taken on dark meanings, meanings that engender cynicism rather than faith in pronouncements of officials holding high rank.
These are the words ‘sorry’ and ‘lapse in judgment’ and a synonym of sorts: ‘misstep’.
Last week it was recently retired national police comptroller Eliseo Dela Paz who read to national news media a prepared “I am sorry” statement upon his return from that headline-making trip to Russia of police generals and their wives,
Dela Paz professed “readiness to answer any and all questions” about the nearly PhP 7-M cash advance he drew as spending money for an Interpol meeting in Russia,
Curiously, Dela Paz’s cash advance was on top of a PhP 2.3-Mspending allotment also released for the PNP team.
Aside from the apparent disproportionately ‘generous’ traveling kitty of the group, public disquiet over the ‘Euro-generals. issue has further been stoked by the incongruent statements issued by officials.
These have ranged from the probable culpability of Dela Paz and his bosses to the source and nature of the funds.
Were these authorized ‘contingency allotments’, intelligence moneys, or did they come from private sources?
The PNP chief Jesus Versosa, who has barely warmed his seat at Camp Crame, surprisingly asserted that the release of the huge amounts to Dela Paz did not pass throught him.
Now reports quote him saying national security is involved. Muddling the issue even more is the move of Dela Paz to question the very jurisdiction of the Senate all the way to the Supreme Court.
A side bar is the obviously hurried “finding” by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations chaired by the voluble Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago that the Ombudsman should open a preliminary probe into the case because Delaa Paz and company were “guilty of malversation of publicx funds.”
I’m saying sidebar because while such a conclusion may not be wrong, how could the committee make the finding after just one hearing ‘in aid of legislation’?
Is this just a moro-moro chapter to prepare the way for a different finding when the Ombudsman handles the case (if at all it will)?
Is Dela Paz just being pig-headed or has his “lapse in judgment” opened the lid on a can of worms which could point to how PNP funds are being spent in cavalier fashion?
HAS THERE BEEN A MASSIVE MISUSE OF PNP CONTINGENCY/INTELLIGENCE FUNDS GOING ON?
ARE WE WITNESSING THE OPENING MOVES OF ANOTHER COVER-UP?
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First of all:
I believe it is very idiotic for a police officer not to know that it is standard regulations of any customs authority that 10K USD or more of cash and monetary instruments need to be declared. Perhaps someone though Russian customs were like what we have here!
Also if the PNP wants to buy intelligence gadgetry, would the sellers (presuming they are legally registered)just accept cold cash like that? If the police general was buying from illegal arms dealers,then cold cash is king! Perhaps the Russians thought he was to buy U or Pu!
The blurbs have reported that any defence contract needs the President’s approval and signature.
This one is most serious: Why should someone already out of government service (de la Paz is retired) carry government money?
so what else is new? everyone in the government is noted for junketing and using government funds to do their overseas shopping. only this time, general de la paz got caught.
“so what else is new?”
Spot on, jcc. This is the very reason why it’s been estimated that up to 30 percent of the national budget is lost to corruption, including malversation of public funds. If you add the revenue lost to smuggling, then it’s no surprise why Filipinos are eating, and selling, recycled food now known as ‘pagpag’.