Wednesday, October 24, 2007 Carvajal: Corruption: a tree with roots at the top By Orlando P. Carvajal Break Point
MOST trees, when their trunk and branches are cut but are not uprooted, will soon sprout new branches. If you wanted a tree really dead you have simply to uproot it.
But how do you uproot the tree of corruption in this country? Its roots are at the top where they feed on the wealth and power of high places. The branches and leaves, the ordinary citizens, are dying on the ground, unable to draw nutrition from the roots that feed only themselves.
Top government officials who are corrupt are never caught or, if caught, are somehow pardoned. Their stolen wealth is then “recovered” by the next corrupt administration which in turn will be pardoned by the next corrupt administration in an unending spiral of corruption.
A local sign that corruption is rooted at the top is Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza’s refusal to answer calls for transparency. He is going way out of the bounds of not only the rules of good governance but also of what can be considered common decency when he instead tries to cow into submission all who dare criticize his administration.
Yet, through all of this what has Secretary Ronaldo Puno and his Department of Interior and Local government (DILG) done? Nothing. Not even a word.
You would think DILG is there to supervise local executives and guarantee their transparency and accountability. So far, however, it has done nothing more than come up with a survey in support of Radaza’s claim of satisfactory performance.
We have always been of the opinion that it would be the decent thing for DILG to do to assure Lapu-Lapu’s citizens that it would conduct an investigation of its own. An even more decent thing to do would be to suspend Mayor Radaza for abuse of power in refusing to answer charges of corruption and now for defying a court order.
But why is the DILG not disciplining Mayor Radaza? Why the deafening silence? Could it be that DILG is in connivance with corrupt local executives (like perhaps for future campaign funds)? We can only speculate but we cannot be blamed for wondering in light of how it has allowed Mayor Radaza to refuse to account for his actuations as city mayor.
Lately, we have had Joe de Venecia grandstand (isn’t the House a snake pit too?) and ask the President to act speedily against corrupt officials after PGMA just ordered another probe (a delaying dilatory move which has usually no beginning and no ending) of the bribery scandal. If the President wanted the bribery stopped she could just stop it and none of this baloney that she does not know who gave out the cash.
The top is the source of all corruption and those who are in it are too drunk with wealth and power to stop it. Only a concerned and courageous citizenry like that in Lapu-Lapu can really do something about it.
