NO MATTER how hard President Rodrigo Roa Duterte rails against corruption, corruption is unstoppable.
Caught in the eye of the president is the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), headed by his favorite Cabinet Secretary Mark Villar, who belongs to the influential Villar family who is close to the sitting president because of its massive financial support during the campaign of 2016.
True enough, Mark Villar is a sacred cow in the Duterte cabinet.
National broadsheets of October 16, 2020 reported on the President's pet peeve, corruption, which, including illegal drugs and criminality, all add up to his discredit.
The president, thus, proclaimed the DPWH is ridden with corruption and no construction work began without money changing hands.
He adds: projects, project engineers, all of that; the road right of way, the corruption there is grave. No construction begins without a transaction (meaning, money).
The president knows the extent of the corruption and those involved.
Which reminds me of a quote by some government officials: Di kami humihingi, pero di naman kami tumatanggi.
The entire government bureaucracy is tainted with corruption: from the Land Transportation Office, Bureaus of Customs and Internal Revenue to the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Department of Social Welfare and Development. Everywhere, where there are big lump sum allocations like the SAP.
Following up of papers in government offices is hard and confusing, ignoring Duterte's admonition that the public should not be kept waiting in queue for so long.
Each government office is in the action. Department heads have a "quota" to fill up for their superiors, otherwise, they fear of demotion or lateral transfers to hellish positions or places of assignment. Even the Civil Service Commission is not spared in the battle for commissions. Ha ha.
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Churches, religious congregations and associations are aware of the lagayan!
A document will not move unless there is padulas or grease money. Such is the sorry state of the bureaucracy and President Duterte knows it fully well. Sus.