The Official Audit Website of the Philippine Government

The Commission on Audit, otherwise known as the COA, is the Philippine Government's Supreme Audit Institution. Its powers and duties emanate from the 1987 Constitution, thus it is constitutionally mandated to audit and settle public transactions independently relative to all government operations, prescribe government accounting and auditing rules and regulations, and recommend measures towards effective governance.

With the coming of the Internet age, it developed its own website, replete with relevant information in a very transparent way. The primary information that one could get from the website is the compilation of the latest annual audit reports of all national, local and corporate agencies, which are posted promptly, together with the necessary archives of previous years’ audit reports. The information gathered from the COA website is a very handy tool for stakeholders, journalists, investigators and the public citizenry who want to be informed of the latest financial positions, audit findings and audit recommendations pertaining to the various government agencies being audited every year. It also has a section dedicated to fraud alerts, where anybody could report complaints of fraud or fund mismanagement by accomplishing a fraud alert form, and it could be done anonymously. The website also provides the public with an updated directory of its officials, complete with names, positions and contact details, such as telephone trunk lines and local numbers and email addresses. Furthermore, COA circulars, memoranda and other issuances are being updated and published in a timely manner.

Other government websites would pale in comparison as far as the site’s richness and transparency of information are concerned. Researchers in the field would find the website very effective and useful. It is indeed a one-stop shop of knowledge about what goes on around the Philippine bureaucracy. That is, as long as these are being adequately disclosed.

Addicted to Johnny Depp

In the beginning there were Platoon, A Nightmare on Elm Street and 21 Jump Street. And then there was Johnny Depp.

Young kids today may have loved him as Captain Jack Sparrow or Willy Wonka. But for someone like me who has followed Johnny Depp since the 1980s, the view is a lot more different. I'm not so sure whether it was Jump Street or Elm Street or Platoon where I first saw the actor. While everyone was talking about Tom Cruise in the 90s, I was keen on watching Johnny's films. And it didn't matter at all that he wasn't the biggest name then.

I would rush home on weekdays when the local TV station would air each episode about teenage undercover cops. I didn't care if the story was too plain or the plot too far-fetched, or the actors were boring or just playing cute. All I wanted was to see him play his part with such coolness and ease of a rising star. When my friends were recounting how Freddy Krueger scared the hell out of them, I told them about the teener who got sucked in bloody fashion into his deathbed (literally speaking). And when everyone was awed at Sgt. Elias' poignant scene where he was gunned down by the Viet Cong, I was instead talking about how I liked the way the interpreter's role was played in the war movie that won an Oscar for Best Picture. Thus began my admiration for Johnny Depp and his movies.

I fell in love with him again in Edward Scissorhands. I watched and believed in the oddball Sam and his park bench act in Benny & Joon. I didn't care at all about DiCaprio in What's Eating Gilbert Grape? I literally dragged my small group of female friends to watch the erotic Don Juan DeMarco, whether they liked the movie or not. (One of them was not talking to me on our way out of the cinema... couldn't complain since I paid for their tickets, anyway.)

I adored him in many other movies that he made in the 90s like Ed Wood, The Astronaut's Wife, Nick of Time and Donnie Brasco, to name a few. Later on, it would become a habit at home to watch him as Ichabod Crane in Sleepy Hollow every Halloween night. My kids and I love the movie and we have watched it so many times.

He was cool in Once Upon a Time in Mexico and Blow... endearing in Finding Neverland, puzzling in Secret Window and From Hell... and his voice was most fitting as Victor Van Dort in Corpse Bride.

Need I mention his works in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Pirates of the Caribbean 1, 2 and 3? Before, pirate movies were believed to be jinxed and were destined to flop... until Johnny Depp came along. A million plus points.

Then I also took note of how he would proclaim his devotion to each of his equally famous girlfriends, from Sherilyn Fenn (sported her name somewhere in Platoon -- was it in his helmet?), to Winona Ryder (had his bicep tattooed "Winona Forever"), to his turbulent affair with Kate Moss, until his quiet fatherhood with French singer-actress Vanessa Paradis.

Right now he has completed filming Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. I heard it will be out by December this year. I'm also excited of rumors that he would be working on the sequel to Sin City. (It doesn't matter whether this is true or not.)

It's irrelevant that he has been nominated twice but never won an Oscar for Best Actor. What is important is that he is still out there doing his stuff.

It's been twenty years, but I still cannot explain why I developed this admiration and respect for Johnny. I guess it was because I read somewhere that he was hesitant to work on films with commercial appeal unlike the others. Perhaps it was his passion for being different in a lot of things compared to the rest of Hollywood that made me develop this fixation and relate with him. I find him to be a rarity in the celluloid world.

I would never hide my addiction to Johnny. For me, he is the greatest actor of my generation. And nobody can ever change that.