H At the heels of the explosion of pork barrel scam, the Commission on Audit (COA) has been seen at the center stage of investigation, and we highly commend and applaud the painstaking efforts of COA for enlightening us how our money was spent by national officials. There is no doubt that the pork barrel scam is not new to our senses. We have a premonition that public funds must have gone to the wrong pockets because poverty continues to be widespread despite annual allocations of billions of pesos for poverty alleviation programs and many other development-sounding projects. Janet Napoles, the mastermind of the multi-billion pork barrel scam, had been able to operate her racket without impunity for the last 10 years. The multi-billion peso question is: why did COA fail to knock out Napoles’s dubious deals? It was Benhur Luy, not COA, who first exposed the pork barrel scam. Without Luy, would the public know how deep the culture of corruption in our midst? Here in Tagbilaran City, we deplore the fact that the City COA, once under the tutelage of Anecia “Aning” Maglajos, was sleeping under its bed while the vaults of public funds were ransacked by its caretakers. This has caused City Councilor Alexander “Aleckoy” Lim to ask a soul-searching question: where was COA during the last nine years when City Hall was once ruled by former City Mayor Dan Lim? Former Bohol Governor Victor Dela Serna, during a radio interview, had once described that administration as “the worst in the history of Tagbilaran City,” as he cited numerous cases of rampant corruption and anomalies perpetrated by previous occupants of City Hall. Dela Serna’s sentiment is also felt by most residents in the city, according to several random radio interviews.

But for City COA officer Maglajos, there was nothing wrong, not an iota of wrong, during the last nine years of ex-mayor Lim’s administration. Councilor Lim, in his privilege speech last Friday, has raised the following troubling questions: What is this foolishness? Why it (financial scandals) all came out now? What did the Commission on Audit do during the last 9 years? Where was COA? In his speech, councilor Lim posed more eye-opening questions: How come that the last nine years had been defined with apathy and silence on the part of COA? How come COA was not able to thoroughly and honestly audit every single transaction and contract at City Hall? “The COA, as a vanguard of public funds, has failed us. It failed to maintain transparency to the public. It failed to report to the public the millions of pesos lost to private pockets. It failed to investigate the numerous anomalies at City Hall. The COA was not acting for the interest of the public; it was acting for the interest of the few,” said councilor Lim, a lawyer. We find inspiration, wisdom, and courage in councilor Lim’s speech when he said: “I would like to manifest that this Privilege Speech will be furnished to the COA Manila and even to the Ombudsman so that proper investigation would be conducted into the role of COA in the lost of millions of pesos at City Hall. COA Officials who have not done their duty to protect public funds must face criminal and administrative charges before the Ombudsman.” Maglajos, who is now assigned at the Provincial COA, has a lot of explaining to do. Was she blind and deaf? Where was she when we needed her most? Did City COA, once under Maglajos, betray us? Are the Boholano taxpayers about to uncover skeletons in the closet of Maglajos?