By
Liling Magtolis Briones
From ABS-CBN Interactive
August 13, 2007
"SONA 2007 has come and gone. Exactly one week ago, the
nation watched another ritual in the business of governance.
For weeks, the people had waited with bated breath as Congress
was spruced up, and media engaged in a guessing game on what
the president would say. The ladies and gentlemen of the government
went into a tizzy over what to wear, the military prepared their
contingency plans, and the militants formulated their Contra
Sona statements."
For
two weeks now, the public has been intrigued and at the same time
confused by the different answers which cabinet members have given
regarding the loss of public documents which were signed during
the President’s trip to Boao, China last April 21, 2007.
These documents included papers related to the $329 million national
broadband network project of the Department of Transportation
and Communications. Another lost document covered the $460 million
project for a satellite-based backbone for the DepEd’s cyber
education program. Media reports on the loss of the documents
coincided with the public release of the paper of Drs. Raul V.
Fabella and Emmanuel de Dios criticizing both projects.
Many groups have joined the debate about the lost documents, including
congressmen and civil society organizations. The policy issue
whether these projects are needed or not is obviously very important.
Another important consideration is the financing side since the
projects will be funded by loans from the Chinese government.
The government has been making noises about balancing the budget
in 2008. The contradictory answers from concerned government agencies
have not been helpful in clearing the air.
Congressman Teofisto “TG” Guingona III of Bukidnon
has asked questions which have not been raised so far. According
to TG, “all government agencies just say that the documents
were lost and leave it at that. The public has also accepted that
they were lost. However, there are many questions begging for
answers. No one has asked questions on the accountability of officials
who have lost the documents.”
TG Guingona asks the responsible government agencies: First: Are
there standard operating procedures (SOPs) governing the handling
of documents which are signed by government officials in foreign
trips abroad? TG insists, ”The existence of SOPs is important
because the government sends delegations which sign bilateral
and multilateral agreements all the time. These could be for projects,
loans, defense and security agreements, trade and so on. In the
case of the China contracts, it seems that the documents were
entrusted to a local Chinese national hired by the Philippine
government to assist. Is there a policy to assign important documents
to local hires? A related question is: If there are existing SOPs,
were these followed?”
Second, continues TG, “Are there security procedures which
are followed when a large delegation from the Philippines joins
the President in trips abroad? Would these include measures to
safeguard important documents?” TG explains why this question
is important. “I have received information that the documents
disappeared during a thirty minute period when the surveillance
cameras in the hotel were turned off.”
TG says that the room was empty at the time the documents were
stolen. “Nothing else was stolen,” he insists.
A corollary question is: Did the officials and staff concerned
utilize safety boxes which are routinely provided in hotel rooms?
If not, why were these not utilized? If safety boxes were used
for storing the documents, how were they stolen when security
codes are usually maintained?
The third question TG is raising is related to accountability.
According to him, “If signed documents are lost while in
the custody of certain officials, what is their accountability?
The law penalizes lack of fidelity in safeguarding public documents.
Has the government initiated a process of establishing who are
accountable and what should be the penalty?”
The final question which TG asks is fairly obvious but has not
been raised: Who stole the documents? Is the
government undertaking steps to identify the thief or thieves?
Has the cooperation of the government of China been sought? After
all, the theft happened in a hotel room in China.
TG concludes that this is not a simple theft to be ignored and
shrugged off. It happened during a thirty-minute period when the
surveillance cameras were turned off. He notes that “there
are speculations that the theft could only have been pulled off
by a powerful group. WHO?
While seemingly simple, the questions that Congressman Guingona
asks are very important. He is calling for a congressional hearing
to get to the bottom of The Mystery of the Lost Documents.
It is bad enough that many citizens don’t trust their government
in matters of state like elections, foreign affairs, defense,
human rights, and all that is important to us Filipinos.
It is terrible when government can’t even be trusted with
safeguarding public documents.
(Ms.
Leonor Briones is a former National Treasurer of the Philippines.
She is currently teaching public administration at the University
of the Philippines. She also writes a column for the Business
Mirror)
Other
Feature articles:
-Of
Command and commandeered votes
-Coming
soon: young bureaucracy?
-What
to do the morning after the night before
-Out
Where the Country Begins
