When the heavy rains finally return, it’s not only the frogs and toads that leap for joy. Perhaps more so are the crooked officials in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), especially the RDs.
Why? Because then they can amass millions of pesos again in connivance with racketeering contractors in the repairs of hundreds of kilometers of roads destroyed yearly by the downpour.
And, ever wonder why those “chocolate” roads are easily washed away during the rains? That’s because the conniving contractors and the DPWH officials purposely use inferior materials, especially asphalt and cement for those roads which disappear from the rains which need to be repaired over and over again, netting monster-dirty money for the DPWH men and their contractor-co-conspirators from billions of infrastructure funds, and their slimy schemes consist mainly of use of inferior materials, over-charging, under-delivery, non-delivery, padding of construction payrolls, ghost projects and abandoned infrastructure jobs.
These rackets in the “chocolate road construction are as old as the hills and most everyone knows that DPWH officials, notably its regional directors, are among the richest people in the country in spite of their meager salaries, and how they frolic in their lifestyles of the rich and infamous."
When it rains, you hear them singing a happy tune and see them jumping for joy, turning green with money warts and all.
Oxymoron: honorable congressmen
Each time a congressman dares another congressman to take a lie-detector test to see who is telling the truth and who isn’t, I can almost always smell the stink coming out of his motives.
As such, I have often wondered why our local authorities, especially the police, rely so much on polygraph tests more commonly known as lie-detector tests in their investigations, particularly in murder cases.
As in the US, polygraphs are useless in court and their results cannot be used in testimonies. Time and again, polygraph tests have been proven to be far from conclusive and psychologists frown at their use.
A study of the development of polygraphs will show they really cannot probe the twisted emotions of a suspected criminal.
They can only measure blood pressure, pulse rate, and respiration simultaneously by means of a pneumography tube around the subject’s chest and a pulse cuff around the wrist. Impulses are picked up and traced on moving graph paper which is driven by a synchronous electric motor.
The theory is that respiration, blood pressure and pulse are involuntary actions, not subject to the person’s will, yet they are bound up with the person’s emotional state.
Fluctuations from the norm, generally a heightening of those actions, signify emotional tumult, and the police conclude this to be a lie. The outcome of the lie-detector test is dependent on the abilities of the test giver and this is the reason why they have been frowned upon as inconclusive.
Our police investigators and lawyers have to stop depending too much on polygraph test results in their pursuit of their cases.
Hence, a congressman’s polygraph’s electric motor can simply overheat as it receives more lies than it was originally manufactured to take, if ever he subjects himself to such a test.
FOR OFFICIAL ABUSE ONLY
There is an ugly practice committed by several members of the cabinet, senators and congressmen, and even the judiciary which needs to stop immediately.
It is the mis-use and abuse of Philippine Air Force (PAF) planes and choppers. These government officials have, for the longest time, been found guilty. Many of their out-of-town trips are simply just for the purpose of cutting ribbons and inaugurations for completed public works projects, or even crowning some barrio beauty queens.
Why can’t officials take commercial flights? After all, they are entitled to transportation allowances. Or do they take the PAF aircrafts and divert the travel money for their personal use?
Many legislators have complimentary passes from the Philippine Airlines (PAL). And so, it is difficult to understand why they insist on using military aircrafts – unless they bring along family members and office staffers when they travel to the provinces.
The PAF should bill these officials for the use of their planes and choppers, not to mention the enormous aviation fuel they have used up to cover their “sightseeing” and pleasure trips.
After all, their Countryside Development Fund (CDF) can easily shoulder the costs of their vanity trips. This will be a common scene especially by government-sponsored candidates for the elections.
Watch out for the official offenders again soon.