Category Archive for: bayan

komentaryo

Wanda Teo, a P60-million ad placement, and the stench of corruption (Part 3)

When news broke that Wanda Teo’s Department of Tourism had placed advertisements with her own brothers’ TV show which is aired on PTV4, it was no surprise. After all, there is an existing complaint against Teo from the concerned employees of the DoT, about alleged unethical, corrupt, questionable practices that has been languishing in Malacañang since June 2017, which also sheds light on the blind item (which turned out to be about her, as she herself responded to it) about a government official asking for free shoes and theater tickets from a hotel in Manila.

Teo has also NOT been forthright or upfront about the expenses of government for the Miss Universe pageant in early 2017, which she says happened without any amount coming from public funds, even as it is obvious that money was spent by government to hold the pageant here. A request via the Freedom of Information portal for a breakdown of expenses has yet to be responded to by the DoT; it’s been there for 100 days.

Which is to say that it’s no surprise that the Commission on Audit’s report on PTV4 has surfaced this obviously highly irregular (to put it kindly), and absolutely questionable and unethical (again, kindly), transfer of cash between Teo’s office and her brothers’ production outfit, which produces her other brother’s TV show.  (more…)

komentaryo

Duterte rages against fact-finding missions

Halfway through the week and the Duterte government, in seemingly separate and distinct instances, has revealed how what it has normalized — what it has strengthened — in the past two years is a form of leadership that fears criticism and rages against accountability. It’s easy to think that this is just about the drug war, and how Duterte has tried consistently, and unsuccessfully, to evade accountability, by either (1) saying that it is not illegal for a President to say “I will kill you!” or (2) discrediting and / or removing from position anyone at all who stands against the war on drugs.

But this attitude has seeped into the ways in which other branches of government work, how these agencies are run, given leaders who are taking from Duterte’s school of (non-)governance, which seeks nothing less than a citizenry that will kow-tow to a leader’s whims, no matter how wrong or violent, unfair or unjust. At the heart of it are leaders that cannot handle criticism and do not know how to even respond properly and accordingly. That it cuts across Duterte’s sacred cows is no surprise: Wanda Teo’s Department of Tourism, Liza Diño’s Film Development Council of the Philippines, the Bureau of Immigration and the military.  (more…)

komentaryo

Portrait of Spocky Farolan as UP Regent (Part 2)

Does this man deserve two blog entries?

Yes, for two reasons. One, he has not stopped. After he went ballistic on that first thread, he actually posted another status, this time saying that he might now be open to the proposal to make the State University a post-grad university, so that he doesn’t have to deal with UPCAT examinees anymore. He hashtagged this thoughtless assertion “Not really a proponent of this but I’m pissed so screw you” and “galit sa mga punyetang ingrato” and “I have been anger free for a while ngayon pumutok so putangina niyo.”

Two, while he *tries* to admit that he lost his temper when he shouldn’t have, he also spends as much time defending his original violent, angry, and absolutely uncalled for responses to the public on his Facebook page, saying that in fact, if you look at his thread, whenever there’s a proper comment, he actually responds properly as well.

That is not only the weakest excuse, it’s also a lie.  (more…)

komentaryo

Wanda Teo and the tale of the traveling “little people” OR, a whiff of corruption (Part 2)

It was in June 2017 when I started receiving information from Department of Tourism employees about Duterte appointee Wanda Tulfo Teo. It was seven months after the blind item about a government official who had asked for free shoes, shopping GCs, and 150 tickets to watch a theater production at a mall — which she denied. It was soon after this column was written, speaking about Teo’s incompetence and cluelessness about the environment and sustainability, given her ‘excitement’ over Nicolodeon building a development project in Coron Palawan.

At this point, Teo was a year into office and DOT employees had already given her enough time to prove herself as a competent, trustworthy government official. Alas, what was revealed in the seven-page letter to the Office of the President’s Presidential Complaint Center (stamped received June 9 2017), was a Teo leadership controlled by her Chief Of Staff Arlene Mancao who was defined as a “tyrant” by the employees. It also spoke about how Teo runs the DOT. (more…)

komentaryo

Wanda Teo and a pair of designer shoes OR, a whiff of corruption (Part 1)

There is little by way of credibility that explains why Wanda Tulfo Teo is still Department of Tourism Secretary. Especially given a President who keeps repeating over and over: Just a whiff of corruption and you’re out.

With Teo, it’s not just a whiff. But a stench. It’s not even just a stench, but proper documentation about, and witnesses to, the manner in which she handles her position and operates her office. And it doesn’t take a genius to see how incompetent she is, unable to talk about a vision for tourism that is not just about motherhood statements and beauty pageant answers — and we’re talking “world peace” level answers, not even Gloria Diaz responding with “Why, do you eat with your feet?” when a judge asked about Filipinos eating with our hands, IN 1969.

Let’s not even get into what she says though, because what she does, the allegations that have been raised against her, are enough to get any public official fired. This is not one instance, but multiple instances; it’s not just one story but multiple stories. As sacred cows go, she’s the most sacred of them all.  (more…)