WHAT the salesgirl inside the hardware section of a mall said surprised me. I was purchasing an item when she told me I could have two of it for the price of one and a half but the catch was that I would pay for only one item to the cashier and the payment for the other item that she priced for only one half would be given to her. Then she inserted one of the items in my pocket, which meant that I would be showing only to the cashier the other item.
“Di lagi ka masakpan ana, sir,” she said when I hesitated. I thought what she wanted me to do was shoplifting so I gave her back the item that she placed in my pocket and told her to return it to the rack.
She obviously desperately needed money because of what she did so I gave her P50 without taking anything in return before going to the cashier to pay for the item I wanted.
It wasn’t my first experience with corrupt employees in a private establishment. The battery of my car conked out before its warranty could expire and the warranty can only be voided if the problem was in my car and not because of “factory defect.” The voiding of the warranty would mean the battery won’t be replaced with a new one.
Availing of the warranty would also mean I had to go directly to the service center in Cebu City and not to the store where I purchased it. I went back to the store anyway to get advice from the employees there. One of them checked the battery and told me that I may no longer go to their service center if I pay P1,500. He would attest the problem to be “factory defect” and replace the battery with a new one. The price of a new battery was P6,000. I did the math and guess which option I chose.
What I am saying is that corruption is everywhere, whether in the public or in the private sector. But it is in the former where the act is at the level of an epidemic. I had an experience years ago that made me realize that even in the most unglamorous division of the police organization some of its employees can still find ways to make money. And I even heard complaints, also years ago, of corruption in the mere act of employing new teachers. That’s in the territory of the Department of Education.
I was not surprised, therefore, when such a humane measure as the good conduct time allowance (GCTA) law gets corrupted. Our penal system is supposedly reformative so giving incentives for inmates’ good behavior inside the prisons is a step in the right direction. But like everywhere else in the government bureaucracy, employees find ways to make money. By the mere act of playing with the figures, the enterprising employee can earn thousands (some say millions) of pesos to free the moneyed but undeserving prisoner, like those convicted for committing heinous crimes.
The revolutionary left has a term for that: bureaucrat capitalism--and considers it as one of the three basic problems that are the causes of our underdevelopment. The left, despite its faults, may actually be right (pun not intended) on this one.