How cuts from gov’t project are divided

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Kalabaw na kasali sa fiesta sa Ozamiz City pinagbabaril ng mga pulis.

Kasalukuyang iniimbestigahan pa ng joint teams ng National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) at Criminal Investigation Detection Group (CIDG) kung nang-agaw din ng baril ang kalabaw gaya ng mga drug pushers na pinagpapatay ng mga alagad ng batas.

Here’s an excerpt of the news:

 “CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – A carabao that was part of the activities of Ozamiz City’s annual fiesta ran amok on Saturday.

Witnesses said the carabao, a full grown male bull, lost its temper when it was paraded around the Birhen sa Cotta grounds where the final judging of street dancing also took place.

The street dancing competition was one of the highlights of the Subayen Keg Subanen Festival”.

***

A big time private contractor with the government told me how he and public officials earn in a, say, ten million pesos farm-to-market road in a town.

“15 percent lang ang tubo ko diyan. 15 percent bigay ko sa congressman, 5 percent sa DPWH (Department of Public Works & Highway) for the boys nila to divide, and 10 percent kay mayor,” he enumerated.

He cited that before he wins the bidding for the project at the DPWH, he first get the nod of the other two bidders (required by law) who would quote the first two highest bid to make the project so they would lose while my source, who bids the lowest ten million project wins.

“I will give them P300 thousand to divide among them or to those other bidders who are interested to the project”.

When I asked him how much he shell-out to the village chief that host the farm-to-market road, he told me he gives the “kapitan” P5000 as token of appreciation in signing the document to attest the program of works in his barangay had already been done by his construction firm.

“Pag maganda ang mood ko at humirit ang kapitan na bigyan din iyong mga kagawad (members of the village’s legislative council), binibigyan ko sila ng P10 thousand”.

To quantify how government funds are pocketed, the narrations say: More than 45 percent goes to those people I mentioned, while the Republic of the Philippines settle for the more than 50 percent or more than P5 million of the P10 million farm-to-market road from the taxpayers’ monies.

This scenario of how the public monies, be it P10 million or 100 million are divided is endemic all over the Philippines.

Many of these government officials would justify that they did not pocket the monies of the government since the contractor gives his personal fund to them.

Even that justification was partially true, it is still grossly disadvantageous to the Republic since the people settle for a substandard infrastructure.

Son of a gun, where do you think the contractor would recoup those almost 50 percent he fed to those vultures so he wins the bid at the DPWH until the time he chalked up the signature of a corrupt village chief in the document attesting that the public work had been excellently done?

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)