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Pinoys have full access to only 3 of 8 documents

RP scores so-so in survey
of budget transparency

by Karol Anne M. Ilagan

TRANSPARENCY in government is a cornerstone policy that President Benigno C. Aquino III has promised to uphold. It has been put in doubt because of his perceived reluctance to divulge the report of the commission that investigated the hostage-taking tragedy last August 23 but he could still make good on his pledge by widening public access to government documents, starting with those on the budget.

As it is, the Philippines has a long way to go when it comes to having open budget books. Indeed, while a report released today by the U.S.-based International Budget Partnership (IBP) says that the Philippines has raised its budget transparency score by a full seven points from what it posted in 2008, it needs to open up some more. It remains one of the 74 out of the 94 countries that the IBP says failed to meet basic standards of transparency and accountability with national budgets.

Read more... | Posted Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
Unpublished IIRC report scores trio

From Day 1, P-Noy wanted
to save Lim, Puno, Verzosa

by Malou Mangahas

ON THE day he received the 82-page report of the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC) about the Rizal Park Hostage-taking Incident – and without even a full reading of its contents – President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III had blurted out: “Napatapang ‘ata masyado ah. Bakit kasama pa sila Puno, Lim, at Verzosa?” [It’s too strongly worded. Why are we implicating Puno, Lim and Verzosa?]

This is according to some of those present at the IIRC’s meeting with Aquino last Sept. 17. The president was, of course, referring to Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, Interior and Local Government Secretary Rico E. Puno, and then Philippine National Police Director General Jesus A. Verzosa, who are among his closest personal and political allies.

Read more... | Posted Tuesday, October 12th, 2010
P-Noy’s Poverty Challenge

Rx for health: Not just money
or dole-outs but real reforms

by Che de los Reyes

IN HIS message that accompanies the proposed government budget for next year, President Benigno C. Aquino III notes that the allocation for health is 13.6 percent higher than 2010’s P29.3 billion (According to the 2010 General Appropriations Act though, only P28.7 billion was allocated to the Health Department).

Yet if one were to compare health’s share of the budget for this year and what the corresponding figure could be in the next, the difference isn’t much.

For 2010, the health allocation is 1.8 percent of the P1.54-trillion national purse. For 2011, the Aquino administration is proposing P32.62 billion for health –as indicated in the proposed National Expenditure Program — which is 1.9 percent of the P1.64-trillion national budget. The increase in terms of share in the total budget then would amount to just a tenth of a percentage point.

Read more... | Posted Monday, September 6th, 2010
For legacy or for House run?

GMA ‘spends’ P845M on ads,
tops list of gov’t ad buyers

by Karol Anne M. Ilagan

THE PERSISTENTLY unpopular President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo may be proof that sometimes advertising just doesn’t work.

In early April, or just a little more than two months before Arroyo is supposed to step down, yet another Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey had her posting a net satisfactory rating of -53 (satisfactory minus unsatisfactory) — her worst showing yet in her nine years as the country’s chief executive.

Read more... | Posted Thursday, May 6th, 2010
The Ampatuans of dirt-poor Maguindanao

Shamefully rich, clan has
35 houses, fleet of wheels

by Carolyn O. Arguillas/Mindanews

It has been four months since the massacre in Maguindanao, in which the alleged main perpetrators are members of a rich and powerful clan. Until their detention, the principal suspects in the murder of 57 people on November 23, 2009 lived in mansions in the country’s third poorest province, in neighboring cities, and even in Metro Manila.

How they acquired their supposedly fabulous fortune cannot be explained in the documents submitted by the public officials among them. But an unbridled access to public monies may be one of the keys to the puzzle, as is the willingness of national government officials to tolerate even the excesses of a political ally.

Read more... | Posted Sunday, March 28th, 2010
Can President Arroyo explain her wealth?

Gloria gets richer fastest,
beats Cory, Ramos, Erap

by Malou Mangahas

By all indications, President Arroyo has worked very hard. In fact, she has worked so hard that during her first years as president, official records show her declared wealth as growing faster, and by amounts much bigger, than the combined growth in the declared wealth of three presidents before her.

The late President Corazon C. Aquino’s declared net worth grew by only 4.8 percent from 1989 to 1992. By comparison, Fidel V. Ramos’s rose by 34.2 percent from 1992 to 1998, and Joseph ‘Erap’ Ejercito Estrada’s, by 7.2 percent from 1998 to1999.

Read more... | Posted Sunday, August 9th, 2009

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