Anong clean – she lied when she said she will not run again. and then she ran.

Doon pa lang – the die is cast.

If she can lie in public, she can lie in private, without blinking an eyelash.

you folks didn’t notice that?

Can I predict – well, If I’ll go by what he did in DepEd –

Corruption at DepEd
MINI CRITIQUE By Isagani Cruz (The Philippine Star) Updated May 08, 2008 12:00 AM

Under the administration of the late Raul S. Roco, the Department of Education rose from being regarded as the most corrupt government bureaucracy to one of its least corrupt. Succeeding DepEd Secretaries continued some of his reforms and were largely successful in reducing corruption, despite the publicized attempts by Malacañang to use the Department to launder election funds. Were it not for the general corruption that now characterizes the government and therefore makes all government institutions suspect, DepEd would be a model of good governance.

What were (I use the past tense advisedly) the most common ways of being corrupt in DepEd?

The worst, as documented by various news agencies, had to do with textbooks. Because the contracts were in the billions of pesos, crooked publishers and printers had no qualms about offering several million pesos to those in DepEd that had something to do with approving purchases.

As Usec in 2001, I was in charge of evaluating the content of textbooks before they got purchased. The highest bribe I was personally offered (which I, of course, refused) was P50 million. Since I knew that the offers would not stop coming in, I did a very simple thing to stop temptation. I simply announced that I thought no textbook was good enough for me. Since all the textbooks offered had factual or grammatical errors anyway, I had a good excuse not to approve any textbook. When the word spread that I would not approve any textbook, no more bribes were offered to me.

To stop ghost deliveries of textbooks ordered by previous administrations, I formed ad hoc teams to conduct surprise visits to printing presses and warehouses to physically count stocks. Moreover, I reassigned staff that used to be connected to textbook evaluation and purchasing.

I set a date when parents and community leaders would wait for scheduled deliveries to schools. I called the day D-Day, for Delivery Day. Succeeding undersecretaries continued the practice and even improved on it by getting civic organizations and NGOs to serve as watchdogs.

Although I had nothing to do with the bidding process, I got television stations to film the process. During one particular bidding, I saw the usual fixers fixed to their seats, because they saw TV cameras recording any attempt by them to whisper to the bidding committee members. Roco loved to call this the Sunshine Principle: if you let sunshine (in this case, media) in, all the germs will die.

All purchases of goods and services were occasions for corruption. Even a small thing such as reserving a hotel function room for a DepEd meeting would mean a few extra pesos for whoever actually went to the hotel to conduct, in a notorious Philippine English euphemism, an “ocular inspection.” I used to wonder why there needed to be an ocular inspection of a hotel that was used regularly anyway by DepEd, until I realized that there was something to be gained for those doing the so-called inspecting.

The practice that Roco tried very hard to stop through the use of bank ATMs was that of accounting clerks deliberately withholding salary checks from teachers until a little coffee money changed hands. That little money was big money, since even a ten-peso tip twice a month from one teacher meant, since there were half a million teachers, ten million pesos a month. Of course, you can’t buy coffee with ten pesos, so you can imagine how many more millions of pesos went into private hands just because they held other people’s checks.

One of the reasons I left DepEd so quickly was the lack of compensation. At the time I was invited by Roco to help him at DepEd, I was the highest-paid academic in the country (since De La Salle University had the highest salaries and I held the highest rank there). In contrast, in DepEd, I got less than what my own secretary at my university earned. I could have made extra money by writing, but then Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. personally advised me not to continue this column because, as he put it, I should do only DepEd work. I then had absolutely no other income but the peanuts I got from DepEd.

When a new trimester was about to start at De La Salle University, I took it as my cue to leave government service. I contented myself with being an unpaid volunteer for CHED, which I have been since then. At least, as one of the technical experts used by CHED to evaluate schools, I still do my share for education in the country.

Now, I am happy working in four universities and writing this column. I get paid amounts commensurate to what I do. In government, it is all financial sacrifice, unless you are corrupt or independently wealthy. It could even be said that the biggest cause of corruption in government is the low salary scale. Fifty million to someone earning less than P30,000 a month is a lot, but it is not much for someone earning what a Vice President earns in Makati.

Kaya nga tinanggal ni Arroyo si Roco from DepEd because a clamor was starting to build – that other Departments emulate DepEd’s turnaround.

Gloria was clean before she became president. The people didn’t know. For all your resourcefullness, did you know? Can you predict what Roco your candidate would do or not do if he won? Will your and benignO’s platform guarantee a winning president that will not steal? Hmmmn?

Bashing the entire filipino people is bashing myself?

Since when has pointing out outrageous stupid behavior become bashing?

What am i supposed to say after seeing someone vote for a thief and then later on rally because the thief stole taxpayers money?

he knew the candidate was a thief, naturally, the candidate upon getting elected will steal money – and yet the bozos voted for him/her. I did not vote for the thief, they did.

Eh kung tanga sila, sali ako? Aba sila ang nagboto nun, hindi ako. Salamat na lang sa kape ug tinapay noy.

http://www.betterphilippines.com/voters-education/introducing-hindi-ako-uto-uto-movement/

If you feel you want to email it to friends, there’s even a pdf version that is light enough for you to email around. Look for the link at the lower part of the page.

This, coupled with the principle behind Platform Plez, should do a lot of good. So tell your friends!

Not to worry. My typewriter occasionally gets away from me. Rather like a million monkeys typing, it comes up with stuff.

I like it here. I will be buried on a hillside on the isle of Biliran, from which my spirit will haunt alongside the white lady, a white dude spooking those who would in any way diss honorable Filipinos, or these beautiful islands.

Joe

I hope you are not one of them.

Into the seas, bro, into the rising seas we go . . . the water is warm, the sharks hungry . . . into the darkening storm infested seas we go . . .

Joe