By Ade S. Fajardo
Before PBBM could lament corruption in his State of the Nation Address, there had already been reports of P142.7 billion in “bicam insertions” added in the late stages of the 2025 national budget process.
The topmost beneficiary of the largess is Bulacan, home province of Senator Joel Villanueva, which is reportedly receiving P12.08 billion in additional funds. That is P3 billion more than the P9.13 billion reserved for Sorsogon, bailiwick of Senate President Chiz Escudero.
Mindoro is set to rake in P8.36 billion; Batangas, P7.32 billion; Davao, P7.21 billion; and Misamis Occidental, P6.52 billion.
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Bulacan is in the eye of the raging waters of disgust.
Senator Panfilo Lacson identified a district engineer and an assistant district engineer from Bulacan who are notorious for their love of money.
One of them is reported to be addicted to gambling that he lost P150 million in just one night.
What enrages is that Bulacan remains inundated in floodwaters despite the billions of pesos being poured into the Department of Public Works and Highways for flood control projects in the province.
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Commissioner Mario Lipana of the Commission on Audit was appointed at the tail-end of the Duterte administration. His appointment was confirmed by the Commission on Appointments on January 26, 2022.
The COA website states that Lipana is a native of San Idelfonso, Bulacan. In fact, he obtained his accounting degree from Baliwag University in 1982.
Given Lipana’s background, one might think Bulacan projects would be carefully scrutinized, given COA’s constitutional mandate to examine all accounts pertaining to government spending.
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Commissioner Lipana’s wife Marilou is the president of Olympus Mining and Builders Corp., which according to the President’s “Sumbong sa Pangulo” website, is the private contractor for two flood control projects in San Miguel, Bulacan.
The project cost is almost P200 million, but was split in two — flood control structures along the upstream of the river amounting to P91.67 million, and the downstream structures for P86.84 million.
Kibitzers say there is a reason for the splitting — projects costing P150 million or less do not get higher approval. They are approved at the level of the district engineer only.
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A COA commissioner has the duty to safeguard the people’s money.
The Constitution provides that no member of a constitutional commission, such as COA, “shall be financially interested, directly or indirectly, in any contract with, or in any franchise or privilege granted by the government.”
Lipana’s financial interest over those contracts is not even indirect. It is direct. The presumption is that income generated during the subsistence of marriage is conjugally owned by the spouses.
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Marilou Lipana had attempted to infiltrate Congress via the party-list route. She ran as a nominee of the Vendors Party-list but lost in the recent elections.
Had she been lucky she would have joined the growing number of contractors in Congress.
Congressmen and COA commissioners have the duty to protect the fiscal well-being of government.
Sadly, the people are losing the fight to infiltrators whose mission is to further enrich themselves in office./WDJ