Perhaps we are just rabid, paranoid conspiracy theorists with too much time on our hands and with little if any solid or empirical evidence to back up our observations that government employees within the Diliman area may be taking liberties that would drive our taxpayers to a frenzy and give career-minded government investigators from the Ombudsman, COA, both Houses of Congress or even humble citizen investigators a lot of meat (that is, information) to sink their teeth in.
All we know is that when the Diliman Diary broke the story last May 16, 2010 (See, “The University of the Philippines at Diliman's University Hotel is a White Elephant according to the Commission of Audit,” (http://tinyurl.com/2bvcbkh) we featured a picture in that story (Please see the first picture below) with the caption, “Painted water substation beside Vargas Museum at U.P. Diliman dramatizes COA's perennial concerns about unauthorized organisms capturing U.P.'s various revenue streams.”
Today, not even a month later, and much to our regret, unknown entities have painted over the picture of the “unauthorized organism” frenziedly flicking its tongue to gorge itself on floating pesos (representing the taxpayer's hard-earned “blood money”). It is too bad, since we regarded the picture of the “unauthorized organism” as a telling work of urban graffiti-style art that dramatized possible financial improprieties within the U.P. that itself that has been brutally obliterated by revisionist entities who do not want to be embarassed by such an inconvenient “reminder” (Please see the second picture below).
Is it all possible that a simple work of art, a kind of urban graffiti, so to speak, has managed to strike a raw nerve with Administrators; and even more importantly is it entirely possible that the Diliman Diary and other concerned citizens continue to strike even more raw nerves with our continued coverage and citizen protests over continuing improprieties at the taxpayer's expense?
But truth to tell, while it is easy enough for any one of us to buy a can of red paint and paint over a drawing, to shut up the “still small voice within all of us,” (to quote Mahatma Gandhi) it is much harder to conceal public records and other major indicators of irregularities or improprieties for long when you have determined investigators who do not easily give up. Even though we at the Diliman Diary, are severely undermanned, with very limited resources; we follow the numerous examples set by other fearless citizen bloggers who have unearthed or reported on the liberties taken by government officials throughout the entire Philippines (in our case, we are concentrating on the Diliman area for now).
Here are a few of the other enterprise stories that we have published so far with our valued readers' collective help, tips, emails, verbal comments, texts and written reports sent in to us. This is a collective effort and we could not have done any of these without all of your help:
- Ayala Land, Inc. proposes to take over U.P. Integrated School. Is a "monopsony" in the offing? (May 26, 2010 http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2010/05/ayala-land-inc-proposes-to-take-over-up.html).
- Daniel Mercado Medical Center and Mercado General Hospital, Inc., are one and the same undercapitalized entity that signed the contract to privatize portions of the century-old Philippine General Hospital (May 3, 2010 http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2010/05/daniel-mercado-medical-center-and_03.html).
- U.P. Philippine General Hospital contract with DMMC to privatize portions of PGH may be lopsided (April 23, 2010 http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2010/04/up-philippine-general-hospital-contract.html).
- U.P. Manila Administration threatens punitive inaction vs. committee findings on 22 graduating students who cheated in 2009 at the U.P. College of Medicine (April 16, 2010 http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2010/04/up-manila-administration-threatens-no.html).
- SUCCESS! - The Diliman Diary finally gets copies of the Malacañang appointments of the three U.P. Regents (March 23, 2010 http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2010/03/success-diliman-diary-finally-gets.html).
- Department of Justice: U.P. Board of Regents cannot ignore U.P.'s own U.P. Charter of 2008 when it signed 2009 deal privatizing portions of PGH (March 3, 2010 http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2010/03/department-of-justice-up-board-of.html)
We do not know, indeed if we are “just rabid, paranoid conspiracy theorists with too much time on our hands and with little if any solid or empirical evidence to back up our claims that government employees within the Diliman area may be taking liberties.” We like to believe that all of our stories are backed up empirically by documentation that we post along with our stories. However, in our coverage we do notice a trend of “undemocratic governance” within U.P. as an underlying theme or unifying thread linking many of our stories. As Alejandrino J. Ferreria once said, “Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence but three times is a bad habit.”
The Diliman Diary hopes to continue reporting on our government's bad habits of a lack of financial transparency and undemocratic governance within the Diliman area and we need the help of you, our readers to continue sending in comments, tips information and reactions so that we can all help make a difference.
Please send all comments, information and data via email to: dilimandiary@yahoo.com or text us at: (0928) 132-6098.
Salamat po!
No comments:
Post a Comment