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Junket, Pimentel style
ONE of the articles in your Sunday April 13
special report “Our Imperial Presidency” mentioned Sen. Aquilino
Pimentel Jr.’s views after attending a conference abroad.
We, the governed, are generally of the belief
that junket trips of our honorable representatives in Congress are a
waste of Juan de la Cruz funds which could instead be channeled to
better purposes. No less than the new “king of the hill” uttered
the following statements, “That the House off Representatives
under his leadership will start cutting down on House-funded foreign
trips of members of the chamber and will no longer throw lavish
receptions for foreign dignitaries so that House funds could be used
prudently, for the more essential undertakings.”
We hope to know soon enough if the Honorable
Speaker Prospero Nograles has succeeded on this or not. It has been
only a week since the opening session of Congress and our
representatives, who went abroad on government funds to attend
conferences and meetings during the long session break may need more
time to liquidate the expenses that they have incurred. Most
importantly, we would like to find out if, like Sen. Nene Pimentel,
as mentioned in his book entitled, Junketing: Senatorial Style,
they, in writing, have reported the results of their trips to the
Speaker. This could also be the applied to government funded trips
of our Senators. They should likewise render their reports to the
Senate President, who if I am not mistaken, regularly reports the
results of his government funded trips abroad through his column in
the newspaper.
It is only in doing these that the unpleasant
meanings of the word junket can be slowly erased from our collective
memories and slowly but surely replaced with positive meanings.
Jerry Quibilan
Crusader for Peace, Prosperity,
Unity, and Love
jerryaquibilan@yahoo.com
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