What may a provincial newspaper achieve in just two years, struggling every issue with the formidable printing cost and dearth of manpower, and armed solely with an obsession to push the rusty wheels of development? Miracle and instant transformation we had not anticipated; we had not predicted dramatic changes overnight. Development as we envisioned, equitable development to be precise, particularly for the Caramoan Peninsula and the rest of Camarines Sur and hopefully the whole Bicol Region especially the island province of Catanduanes, is definitely not achievable by the next dawn.
But certainly our efforts have stirred the minds that shape crucial decisions and we have awakened in some measure nonchalant segments of the society who care very little or none at all of what happens outside of their own homes, not even the immediate community with whom they breathe the same air with the neighborhood.
We began with the dream that the Caramoan coastal road which stagnated for 15 years be pursued and completed not only to accelerate growth in the Caramoan Peninsula but for the island province of Catanduanes, whose resilient people, unfazed by howling winds, continue to hope that they could reach mainland through Caramoan in just 30 minutes.
But as we focused on few developments targets we came to grips with some harsh realities. Every development goal is stunted not because the national leadership would not accede to the aspirations of the people but because in the bureaucracy and even LGUs human crocodiles lurk, their salivating jaws wide open to devour as much as possible every peso filtering through the government mill.
This, we had learned, had been the overpowering obstacle from time immemorial, and sadly, greed and corruption have multiplied many times over. Before they do it in the dark, under-the-table so to say, but now they are doing it shamelessly in the open. Before some projects were sub-standard, now many projects are totally not implemented but paid. And, the amounts involved run to hundreds of millions of taxpayers money here in Camarines sur alone. Too much, too much indeed.
And this is occurring in our midst when the government is supposed to have set up anti-graft bodies more than what any country on the face of the earth has ever installed. Before the Ombudsman, the sandiganbayan and the Provincial Anti-Graft Commission, the Commission on Audit had been institutionalized as government watchdog. Has COA helped? Many in the COA today opt to close their eyes than suppress malfeasances, seemingly detached from their mandate, if not actual accessories.
PENINSULA MONITOR, isn’t aspiring to be another anti-graft body but it isn’t one that will just be a fence-sitter even as supposed watch-dogs simply watch while the scoundrels feast on the people’s misery, like Nero who exulted at the sight of Rome burning.
Share with us our apprehensions on our second Anniversary, but more importantly share with us, too, our dreams.
