Stop, thief!

For an agency that is being allocated the lion's share of the 2025 national budget, at a staggering P1.1 trillion, it's amazing that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) cannot build and maintain even a 40-kilometer elevated road in Metro Manila.

- ANA MARIE PAMINTUAN

Instead, the national government had to assign the task to the private sector, which of course must collect a toll on the road for a healthy return on investment.

And so, a one-way trip end to end, Alabang-Balintawak, on the Skyway will set you back a total of nearly P430, and that's just for Class 1 vehicles - cars, sport utility vehicles and big motorcycles.

The DPWH found it necessary to give to the private sector the task of constructing and maintaining even the elevated road connector from Macapagal Boulevard to the NAIA Terminals 1 and 2 - a distance of between two to four kilometers. For this, Class 1 vehicles are charged one-way tolls of P35 to P45.

For delivery trucks, toll rates are always higher. Naturally, such road tolls are passed on to consumers, adding to inflation.

Where do our taxes go? To the fake philanthropy projects of politicians, who ignore guidelines and take credit for aid distribution that is supposed to be implemented solely by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

DSWD Assistant Secretary and spokesperson Irene Dumlao reiterated this guideline last Wednesday, but admitted that it needs fine-tuning.

What do ordinary DSWD personnel do when lawmakers, the governor, mayor and other officials crash an aid distribution event, posting their names and images on huge streamers all over the venue, and posing on stage for photos as the ayuda is handed out?

On One News' "Storycon" last Wednesday, Dumlao was asked why the bicameral conference committee allotted P21 billion to congressmen and P5 billion to senators for the Ayuda para sa Kapos ang Kita Program, when politicians are supposed to have no role in AKAP distribution. Why is there such a division of spoils?

Dumlao withheld comment, pointing out that the 2025 national budget had not yet been signed by President Marcos.