GOVERNMENT RESOURCES. Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Lloyd Dino (right, on the podium) delivers his welcome remarks during the regional directors' meeting conducted by the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) at the Big Hotel in Mandaue City, as PACC Chairman Dante Jimenez (top left, seated) listens. (Photo by John Rey Saavedra)
CEBU CITY – The Office of Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV) on Tuesday said it will continue monitoring regional directors of government agencies who allowed government resources to be used in politics.
“Let me quote PACC (Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission) chairman (Dante) Jimenez as saying that President (Rodrigo) Duterte is very serious in his anti-corruption campaign in all levels of governance,” Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Lloyd Dino told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in an interview.
He said his office monitored four to five regional agencies whose directors allegedly allowed their office to be used in supporting the machinery of a local politician in Central Visayas.
Dino, however, refused to name them, saying “the office is still gathering evidence” to bolster his claim. He also refused to name the local official.
He said during last year’s barangay (village) election, OPAV received reports on the alleged “campaigning activities” of three government agencies that favor candidates who were supported by a local politician.
“From distribution of government assistance up to actively facilitating a political camp which acts tantamount to inequitable and unscrupulous utilization of government resources in favor of a politician, these are other forms of corruption,” he said.
Dino detailed the acts of certain officials allegedly engaged in politicking, noting that one “provincial head of an agency went down to the level of guarding a group of SK (Sangguniang Kabataan) candidates in a hotel to ensure their votes [are] for the local official’s favorite candidate.”
“Our government distributes assistance for the poor. But to ensure honest and fair elections, do not allow its distributions in front of a candidate. You are helping to bolster his machinery at the expense of the people’s tax,” he said.
In his opening remarks during the regional directors’ meeting with PACC chairman Jimenez at the Big Hotel in Mandaue City last Monday, Dino named only three regional government agencies allegedly involved in politicking.
He thanked PACC for choosing Cebu as its first stop of its series of consultative meetings to regional officials, informing them of its mandates under Executive Order No. 43 signed by President Duterte last Oct. 4, 2017.
Dino said the dialogues are “a significant step towards that objective of ending corruption in the government.” (PNA)
