Friday, August 03, 2007 Editorials: Weeding out graft and corruption
LET'S face it, graft and corruption is a social disease that has been with us since we developed the human sense of need, hunger and covetousness.
Its existence was acknowledged in biblical times when Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus Christ’s disciples, accepted 30 pieces of silver as bribe that led to the capture and crucifixion of the Master.
More than two thousand years later, the “disease” has grown worse, spreading in all directions of the globe.
Scandals
Graft and corruption has always been one of the central issues in all political campaigns since the end of World War II. When the “liberation” came in 1945, the circus of corruption began.
The cause could have been the Filipinos’ extreme deprivation during the four-year war.
When the American soldiers landed and brought in canned food supplies that people missed in the past years, unbridled greed seeped into their sinews.
Thus did a deep need to satisfy the “hunger and greed” emerged.
And so the notorious war surplus scandals came into the picture and smeared the once August portrait of the Philippines, as big names in the political leadership got enmeshed in them.
The national media never had it so good reporting the thieveries and scams perpetrated all over the islands.
Losing effort
When campaign was waged for the Philippine Commonwealth’s last president, whose term would extend under the independent Republic of the Philippines that was set up on July 4, 1946, the issue of graft and corruption took center stage.
The issue rode the tide of our country’s history across the decades to the present; a war with victory is hardly in sight.
Thus began a spirited national movement to weed out corruption in public service.
But it has been a losing effort all these years.
Achievement
As the anti-corruption crusader Transparency and Accountability Network (TAN) pointed out, “secrecy in high-level government contracts has (instead) led to ‘grander’ and more lucrative corrupt practices.”
However, TAN pointed out that “red tape and petty corruption, such as bribery, have decreased because of the anti-red tape executive order issued by Malacañang last year…The executive order reduced transaction fees and trimmed bureaucratic dealings.”
That, in essence, is as far the weeding of corruption in public office has gone so far.
