Sunday, December 16, 2007 Cabaero: Petty bribery on the rise By Nini B. Cabaero Beyond 30
THE controversy involving a Cebu lawyer and policewoman over a bribery attempt to lower the charge against a drug suspect presents a real-world scenario of a Transparency International finding that petty bribery is on the rise even in poor countries.
The Transparency International report at www.transparency.org titled “Global Corruption Barometer 2007” was released last Dec. 6 in Berlin. It listed the Philippines as among the countries with the highest level of petty bribery.
It said more than 30 percent of the respondents in the country reported having paid bribes. The poll was taken from June to September this year with 63,199 people in 60 countries and territories as respondents.
As to public expectations that the extent of corruption in the future would be gloomier than in the past years, the respondents from the Philippines were among the “most pessimistic,” the report said, with more than 79 per cent of them expecting an increase in corruption.
This report brings to mind the alleged bribery attempt case involving lawyer Gines Abellana and a police woman against the Regional Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group 7. Abellana and PO1 Blaire Quezon have been cited by three members of the task group in the payment of a P50,000 bribe for the downgrading of a drug charge against an arrested suspect.
Quezon had said Abellana was the source of the money, while Abellana said those of the task group were lying and had instigated a person to commit a crime. Abellana said Supt. Marvin Sanchez, head of the task group, and PO2s Roehl Patalinghug and Armando Labora had demanded money from his client but, thinking they were the subjects of an entrapment, decided to arrest Quezon instead.
Abellana said Quezon had no part in it as he merely asked her to look into the offer of a settlement after his client was approached by someone who asked for money in order to lower the charge from drug selling to mere possession. He said he will help in Quezon’s defense.
On his quarrel with the task group, Abellana said he had a conflict with task group head Sanchez in the past over missing dollars in a different case.
A case of bribery is often complicated as it involves a person in power who is induced by money into using that power illegally or unjustly or, in some cases, the person in power turns the table on the bribe payer.
In the ensuing hurling of charges and counter-charges, past sins of omission or commission are resurrected to challenge the personalities involved. It becomes a blaming game where truth can get distorted and it takes time for the truth to come out. And when it comes to the blaming game, there is always the possibility that the small fish gets left with the bulk of the blame.
As the Transparency International report said, globally the police are the institution most frequently reported to demand bribes. “Entrenched bribery inflicts deep and lasting wounds on a society, destroying belief in those who govern,” said Transparency International chair Huguette Labelle.
