SOMETHING is very wrong in our society. Talk to a taxi driver or a cigarette vendor, an office worker or classroom teacher, a technocrat or law practitioner, a pastor or bishop. People see the bureaucracy as thoroughly infested by corruption to the point of shamelessness.

But in fact it's not only in the bureaucracy. It's everywhere -- in politics, in business, in media, in vice masquerading as hobby or entertainment.

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Is bingo or mahjong simply an innocent hobby or pastime? How about card games, cockfighting... lotto? With the proliferation of games of chance, gambling and betting aren't casual pastimes as before anymore. The gambling habit is a type of corruption, a psychological disease, and a harmful influence to morals.

Too many Filipinos engage in gambling with deadly intent and regularity. It's impossible not to notice it. It's in homes and neighborhoods, in markets and street corners, in malls and terminals, even in private offices.

It's so bad that sometimes an event involving certain personalities must be scheduled in a way that it doesn't fall on times reserved for mahjong or card sessions. Does anyone know someone who's easier to find in bingo parlors than at home during mall hours?

This obsessive-compulsive behavior feeds the gambling habit. It conditions people to engage in an unproductive activity. Sure, it moves money around or redistributes wealth but with no net effect upon the economy -- and the movement is in the direction of the gamblers' pockets.

This societal habit is manifest in the easy access to gaming paraphernalia and betting places everywhere. There are decks of cards and mahjong sets in households; computer gambling software at home and on the internet; billiard parlors and pool tables in neighborhoods; "video karera" in alleys and sari-sari stores; and of course jueteng or masiao -- though less now with "Swertres" eating into their market.

Then there's "dama" or chess for betting habitués of barbershops or salons. In lowly barangays - neighborhood cockfighting, with kids squatting on sidewalks tossing coins in a game of "hantak;" in every mall of any consequence, a large bingo hall; in practically every city block, a passerby is importuned to PLAY LOTTO HERE!

In court, this would constitute a preponderance of gambling evidence. The enticement to bet and gamble is everywhere. So how else to conclude but that the rot and corruption in our society is embedded in its very foundation - in the community. The world's perception that we have Asia's most corrupt society shouldn't surprise anyone.

Poverty, joblessness, or desperation among the masses does not explain it all. It's not only the poor that engage in gambling. The affluent are in it too, in a big way, betting ridiculously huge amounts, going through ridiculous lengths to do so.

Remember Erap's cavalier giving away of "balato" to John Osmeña and Tessie Oreta, a cool million each? Here there's someone who loves to go to Davao supposedly on official business, but in fact uses it as a pretext for playing big-time in casinos there. Poor fellow, it's damn inconvenient for him that we don't allow casinos to be established here.

In Manila, the high rollers fly to Macau or Las Vegas, famously led at times by the First Gentleman himself and a bevy of cronies and sycophants. Betting top dollar in Las Vegas casinos, they indulge to their heart's content without the slightest pangs of conscience, without being self-conscious about being from an impoverished country, and without shame that foreigners view their extravagance as financed by ill-gotten money.

Let's face it: gambling and corruption are like Gemini twins. They're natural partners, accomplices in vice. It's no coincidence that the names of notorious gamblers are uttered in the same breath as big-time scams and crime reports.

A really bad combination is gambling and public office. But guess who just got appointed deputy national security adviser! What's there for him to secure - the national treasury? Let's hope the treasury vault is more secure than the one with the tobacco subsidy funds in Ilocos Sur -- which were gambled away during Erap's time!

But we never learn. No one raises such issues before the Commission on Appointments or with appointing authorities.

Is it wise to place public policy or public administration in the hands of gamblers and high rollers? Is it wise to have "value-formation" programs of public agencies and their NGO partners funded by PAGCOR casinos, PCSO lotto, or by known vice lords?

"In God we trust" is the US Government's motto (on its dollar bill). But here, our motto seems to be "In Gambling We Trust!"

Right, Jun del Fierro, Jun Juarez, Jun Calub, or Mario Pelisco?

A former UN executive and deputy presidential adviser for constitutional reform, Manny heads Gising Barangay Movement and writes Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays. Email: valdeman_esq@yahoo.com

For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Davao.

(October 31, 2008 issue)
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