Explanation required

Public officials, elected or appointed, have the obligation to properly explain how they are spending the people's money.

- BOO CHANCO

We have the Commission of Audit to make sure they do. But as we have seen in recent experiences with Vice President Sara Duterte, her explanations fall short or in many instances, she even refused to provide any.

It seems, the Vice President has the audacity to think that whatever budget has been provided her office can be spent any way she pleases. This is probably how she handled her budget as Davao City's mayor and how her father also used to handle government funds as mayor and as president.

Someone in our government institutions must have the responsibility of making her and all public officials realize their budgets are not personal funds and must be spent to accomplish the task for which the funds were made available.

We are not a rich country and our funds for public purposes are rather limited. We need to invest in human capital like education and health care. We need to build roads, bridges and irrigation systems but instead, we build a P30-billion Senate building.

We also have to borrow heavily to support our national budget, money that future generations will have to pay. We don't have a centavo to waste. Surely, anyone who takes an oath to serve as a public official must be ready to explain how the people's funds are properly spent by their offices.