What is it?

Yesterday we remembered the children who were victims of the desire of Herod to stay in power. Fear of being dislodged by a reported King of Jews, he massacred the innocents. We thought that what Herod did was terrible and yet today we still see the same mentality of staying in power at the cost of the innocents – the citizenry.

As a child would asked “what is it?”, so also many questions arise in our daily lives that really amaze us for their waywardness of thought and action that illustrate this continuing human weakness for power and wealth.

During the series of Christmas parties of the last week, I gathered a lot of information that made me to ask, what is it?

There is a report that the Sanggunian has appropriated P3 million for the “projects” of the Liga ng mga Barangay. Each barangay was to receive P62,000. The barangay chairmen were told that they should attend concert at the SMX where the money was to be distributed.

Information said that the Liga treasurer had already withdrawn the money and cash will be distributed prior to the concert. They had to be there at 3 p.m. as the concert where Monico Puentevella reportedly sang.

The barangay chiefs had to “endure” the long wait for seven hours. One can endure the agony and grumbling if there is P62,000 to bring home.

The concert ended but no money. The chiefs were told instead to go to the house of Puentevella the following morning where they would receive the money.

The chiefs were very eager to get the money which they were told they need not account for although the money is for barangay projects. The word passed around is that they will only “produce receipts” for the COA but the money is theirs. Have Bacolod officials passed from just being corrupt, to being advocates of corruption?

The word from Puentevella in his reply to the Ombudsman in the BASOC case is that there is no law that compels him to account for public funds. So now this is the ideology in Bacolod?

However, this is just the first part of the story but this will be an interesting one the moment the fireworks had already exploded after the New Year. Then we will have another blast of a different kind of pyrotechnics.

What is this report that Bacolod City Legal Officer Raymundo Diaz has told Councilor Carl Lopez that the matter of suspension of the Isidro Sun and Jose Maria Makilan, of the Office of the Building Official is none of Lopez's business?

It seems that Lopez asked Diaz for a copy of the order of the Ombudsman directing the filing of cases against Sun. Lopez probably wanted to determine the exact date of the Ombudsman's order because that means that Sun and Makilan should have been immediately suspended.

However, Puentevella did not suspend them and in fact announced that their suspension would start January 1, 2015 because it is the Christmas season. In other words Puentevella took it upon himself to decide when to implement the order of the Ombudsman which should have been enforced immediately last month. Anyway that is his problem.

The problem of CLO Diaz is that he cannot refuse to provide Lopez with a copy because the Ombudsman's order is not a state secret, Lopez is a member of the SP and I think every citizen cannot be denied that information. In fact, Lopez can easily secure a copy of that order from the Office of the Ombudsman but he chose to take a right step – asking the CLO first.

It is understandable for Diaz to withhold the information because it is incriminating for his boss. The date is vital to determine the culpability of Puentevella because the suspension of Sun and Makilan should be immediate even pending appeal or legal maneuvers.

Lopez must be cooking something not really for Christmas or New Year's feast but something that we will know in due time once the “humanitarian” aspects of this case that Puentevella invoked for not suspending Sun and Makilan no longer exists.

What is this talk that there was a 10 percent down payment in the recent bidding for the collection of Bacolod's garbage? If true, who got the down payment and who gave it? Ten percent of P190 million is a lot of money, a treasure trove for election expenses. Let's see how fast the SP will approve.

Maybe these are just for Innocents Day.*

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