Friday, February 15, 2008 Speak Out: Flawed system By Freedom From Debt Coalition
GREED is not just about Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the First Gentleman and other greedy officials.
If Filipinos ought to learn something from the revelation of Rodolfo "Jun" Lozada Jr. over the aborted $329-million ZTE-National Broadband Network (NBN) project, it is that our flawed political and economic system perpetuates this greed.
- Government projects are not primarily determined by people’s needs and national priorities, but by the profit-making agenda of government officials, foreign lenders and private multinational and even big local corporations.
- Executive powers to approve, contract and implement projects and loans are non-transparent and unregulated. These powers, beginning with the Office of the President, must be curtailed, redefined and subjected to rigorous checks.
- The bidding process is more dysfunctional than all the players care to admit. Many government officials and their close relatives get involved in vying for government contracts. This must be stopped.
- The practice of "commissions" is widespread, well entrenched and involve several layers for every project. Apparently, the politicians and highly placed government employees involved only differ on the amount they get. We say no level of commission is acceptable.
- Lenders are driven by their own agenda often at the expense of our national interest and the welfare of our people. Many loans come with conditions.
In the ZTE-NBN case, it was tied to the purchase of services and technology from the same country, and even from specific companies.
Lenders promote and perpetuate corruption by practicing bribery and including the cost of the so-called commissions into the project cost.
In many cases, lenders pass on overpriced, unnecessary and/or flawed products.
Vulnerable setup
The government system is highly vulnerable to plunderers who see the system as a lucrative source of business opportunities and huge kickbacks, precisely because it is a government dominated by rent-seeking elites, colluding with rapacious foreign big business and their governments.
The Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), the People Against Illegitimate Debt (Paid), and the Assembly of Faith-based organizations against Immoral Debt call for an immediate independent audit of all loan-financed government contracts beginning with the suspended ZTE-NBN deal.
This should lead to a comprehensive audit of all public debt and all policies, regulations and laws that govern public borrowings, including the Build-Operate-Transfer law, the practice of extending sovereign guarantees and the resulting contingent liabilities.
FDC and Paid will be convening an independent Citizens Debt Audit Commission for this purpose. We urge both Houses of Congress to form a Congressional Commission on Debt Audit for the same purpose.
These can be parallel processes: the Citizens Audit and the Congressional Audit.
Good deeds
We call on other government officials and private citizens who have information about other questionable projects to come forward.
The best way to honor and give meaning to the courage and selflessness of Rodolfo "Jun" Lozada Jr. is not by merely extolling his good deeds, but by replicating it with the same act of daring.
We demand that all those who are found guilty and responsible be held accountable and punished under the full force of the law.
We also demand that the government immediately stop payments for illegitimate debts and the implementation of anomalous projects such as those mentioned by Lozada.
