Slowly, the paper trails on massive plunder of government funds likely in a pathetic effort to assure the dominance of the Liberal Party (LP) in the 2016 elections are being uncovered.

Documents bared by Sen. JV Ejercito showed the highest collusion possible in the previous regime which seems to have as its favorite target the Department of Health (DoH) and its multibillion-peso projects.

When the public thought that the P3.5 billion Dengvaxia purchase for a mass immunization program close to the 2016 campaigns was anomalous, Ejercito bared a bigger P10.6 billion diversion of expanded senior citizens’ program funds to the supposed construction of rural health units and stations.

Similar to the release of the Dengvaxia funds, the August 28 letter that then Health Secretary Janette Garin wrote Budget Secretary Butch Abad has a strong sense of urgency for the release of the funds.

Sought for “immediate” release in the letter were P392 million for the construction of health centers, P4 billion for barangay health stations, another P5 billion for “school-based” barangay health stations, P125 million for the upgrade of military, police and school hospitals and P125.7 billion for mobile dental hospitals.

The questionable realignment of funds was unearthed amid the Senate’s review of the Universal Health Care program.

The revelation of Ejercito showed the LP has been dipping its hand into huge sums in budgetary items in the guise of massive service programs.

Also prior to the 2016 elections an almost similar amount as that of the senior citizens’ program funding was allotted for the increase in the allocation for the dubious Bottom Up Budgeting (BUB) program of Abad which the LP opponents derisively called as the Buy Ur Barangay program.

The BUB was supposed to be a reform measure in which the local government and civic organizations can choose projects for funding through the budget.

Abad committed a total of P35 billion in BUB for 2017, a P10.3 billion increase from the 2016 BuB budget.

Some P19.7 billion, or more than half of the committed BUB funding, was “downloaded” to beneficiary local government units (LGUs).

Officials of cities and municipalities will directly get the BUB funding which would be in addition to their usual internal revenue allotment.

The only requirement was that LGUs have complied with the very subjective “good governance conditions set in the implementing guidelines of the program.”

Requirements also include compliance with the Good Financial Housekeeping component of the Seal of Good Local Governance and implementation of Public Financial Management (PFM) improvement measures.

Abad then said “the release of these funds will depend on the performance of the LGUs.”

Under the program, 12,000 barangays received fundings from the national government released through the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

The head of the DILG then was Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento, the LP secretary general.

Then LP bet Mar Roxas said during one of his sorties that if he won the elections, the BuB would go down to each Filipino individual who would get an equivalent of P1,000 each under his “BuB pa more” campaign pitch.

Roxas said P100 billion will be infused in additional BuB to realize his pure doles or what can be considered vote buying during the election season.

Needless to say, all the conditions and circumstances whether it was the BUB, the Dengvaxia funding or the juggling of the senior citizens’ fund, the common denominator was their proximity to the 2016 polls when LP kingpin Roxas was trounced by an unassuming Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte.

Previous articleFace the music, LeilaNext articleNBA crown beckons Warriors Daily Tribune Cartoon