Wednesday, December 06, 2006 Echaves: Despite the odds By Lelani P. Echaves
The 2004 Transparency International Report ranked the Philippines as the second most corrupt country, outdone by Indonesia by 0.30 points. While the country’s inclusion in the list is not surprising, we choked from its conversely high rank. Imagine, that’s second place among eleven Asian countries.
Who prominently figured in this list was in the report of the Social Weather Station, based on its survey. Top Five were the DPWH, PNP, BIR, Bureau of Customs and DepEd. Naturally, DepEd’s presence in this list was shocking, what with its efforts in the values education of students young and transforming.
So ingrained is corruption in the government system that last October the Development Academy of the Philippines launched its Graduate Certificate Course in Corruption Prevention. The first ever in the Philippines, the seven-module course task participants to find actual corruption problems presented to them. Upon completing the course, the students earn 15 units of graduate credit. These can be used to apply for a Master’s Degree in Public Management major in Corruption Studies.
Expectedly, the search for solutions shall be challenging. Related studies by the Social Weather Station showed that people do not report corrupt practices for various reasons: nothing would be done anyway, not reporting the incident was SOP, difficulty of proving the corruption committed, fear of reprisal, too busy to follow it through to its resolution, hesitance at betraying anyone, no funds for the expenses involved, etc.
Elsewhere, a police general was embarrassed by the report. Smarting from these findings, he decided to help arrest the continuing plunge of his institution.
So, in September two years ago, he gathered fellow policemen to begin the turnaround efforts. By this police general’s admission, what was their common thread? They were the PNP’s “scalawags,” also known as “taba” (meaning tamad, abusado, bastos and ayaw madisiplina). They were the first students of the PNP Values and Leadership School (VLS).
Breakfast sessions were simple; just two eggs, two tomatoes, two pieces of “tuyo” and coffee. Three weeks into their training, the walls of defensiveness came tumbling down. About 85 percent of them admitted to womanizing, having at least two women other than their wives. Some 45 percent hadn’t gone home to their families in at least two years. Almost 100 percent admitted mulcting the civilians. About two admitted committing rape.
The moving spirit behind the VLS is PNP Chief Supt. Samson Tucay. Known for his soft-spoken ways and never wearing a firearm, this Ilocano once served in Vietnam and admitted to wayward ways before he joined the Bukas Loob sa Diyos group. Today, as the VLS training director, he is optimistic about the turnaround efforts, especially because of its partnership with the Dilaab Movement, a Church-based group working for a transformed Filipino nation through heroic Christian citizenship.
The VLS is a 30-day program providing holistic formation to PNP personnel in their physical, psycho-spiritual and spiritual needs. Its partnership has included 15 Church groups, both Catholics and Protestants, and NGOs.
To date, VLS has graduated 2,400 police personnel, about 200 in Cebu and the rest from Subic. This year, 17 regional training schools nationwide have welcomed the VLS objectives. No small successes despite the odds.
The late author and chaplain of the US Senate Edward Everett Hale said it best: “I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. What I can do, I should do. And what I should do, by the grace of God, I will do."
