Editorial on Graft and Corruption in the Philippines

This is from an editorial in the Manila Times. Actually my own experience with public officials in the Philippines was always quite positive and I was never requested for a bribe or anything of the sort and I lived there for well over a year. However, I have no doubt from what I heard from Filipinos themselves that the editorial is correct. I also had lots of stories from my wife's relatives. Her sister for example is stuck out teaching in the boondocks. To move to a better location nearer the city where she lives, she claims she would need to pay bribes, something she is just unwilling to do. In spite of the tradition of bribes there are still many people who don't take them and as this editorial mentions public officials who retire poor and unbribed.

Friday, October 19, 2007


EDITORIAL

Rot


IT’s very, very sad when a public office responsible for the education of young Filipinos is described as corrupt by the Office of the Ombudsman.

The Department of Education, according to Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, is one of the top five graft-prone government agencies, together with the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Bureau of Customs, Department of Public Works and Highways and the Land Transportation Office.

She made her observations at a meeting with the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Wednesday in Binondo.

It is interesting that the DepEd should be lumped together with offices that collect money.

This is not the first time that DepEd made it to the dubious list. Starting with the DECS (Department of Education, Culture and Sports), the department has been charged with anomalies related to the allocation and distribution of textbooks, purchase of luxury vehicles, teachers’ salaries and poorly written textbooks.

Perhaps it is not surprising that the department would get enmeshed with graft. Corruption is written on the bureaucracy. Historically, rot has gnawed into the vitals of Congress, the Executive and the Judiciary.

Surveys and findings by overseas think tanks and financial institutions agree that we are a very corrupt country.

Speaker Jose de Venecia’s call for a “moral revolution” is timely. But it should begin with a moral renewal in Congress—in the House and the Senate.

Congress has turned deaf to persistent calls for the abolition of pork barrel, known these days as the priority development assistance fund, which has encouraged corruption and substandard public-works projects.

Congress being on recess (one of many in a legislative year), representatives and senators have again embarked on traditional unnecessary foreign travels, the junkets that are funded by taxpayers’ money and that do not improve lawmaking.

Incessant investigations have not produced useful bills or launched prosecution of wrongdoers. It is said that the mere prospect of a congressional inquiry could produce and deliver lobby money to quash the threat.

Chronic absenteeism and tardiness are a waste of public money. Have you heard of the “Furusato” lunches and other expensive meetings? The congressional workweek is only four session days.

We need longer space for rot in the Cabinet and the subcabinet hierarchies—beginning with red tape to bribe solicitation, from case fixing to big-time deals like the fertilizer fund scam.

Chief Justice Reynato Puno has dismissed and disciplined justices and judges for nepotism, corruption and fraud. The criminal justice system—meaning the police, prosecution, prisons and the courts—has been mired in criminal, civil and administrative cases partly for abetting crime and partly for delaying justice.

In mature democracies, exposes about naked bribery would send angry citizens to the streets, prompt them to flood telephone lines with angry calls, fax letters to the editors and keep TV talk shows busy with angry complaints.

Filipinos take graft for granted. But they get ruffled over a poor joke (or insult) from an American TV drama about marital infidelities.

The culture

IT is difficult for an honest man to escape the culture of graft. If you head an office and you play it straight, your subordinates would pull off their tricks anyway. They would make a pile and tell the victim or the other party that the deal was on your orders or you knew about it.

If you’re a newcomer to an agency and you discover graft going on, you either play along or you are sent to Coventry.

If you had been honest and retired poor, there would be comments like, “Tanga siya. Nasa-puwesto na, hindi pa gumawa. [He’s stupid. He was in government but did not make a pile].”

We heard that in some revenue-collecting offices, the bosses accept and tolerate corruption as long as their collectors meet their quota or are reasonably productive.

Many Filipinos are hesitant about accepting an appointment or joining public service because they do not want to compromise their principles. Those who are making good money in private life are not ready to make a financial sacrifice.

They also know that a public official is vulnerable to numerous harassments and charges, from the petty to the ridiculous.

Those who have had enough have resigned or retired from the service for the good of their family and children.

And many technocrats have retired poor. Public service has its own rewards, after all, besides money on the side. Those who retired in poverty considered themselves literally servants of the people. Their lives inspire.

President Ramon Magsaysay died poor. Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla had to return to private life to make money for a change. If he resigns tomorrow, we have reason to believe that CHED acting chairman Romulo Neri, whatever his critics say about him, may have to ride public transport.

And Rene Saguisag, a former senator and graft-buster who would have been a Supreme Court justice, continues to live in his wife’s property in Palanan, Makati. He was the only senator to return his unspent travel money to the Senate finance office.