When a governance anomaly occurs, elected officials like to advertise themselves as initiators of the mandatory probe. But because grandstanding is often the driving motive, investigations never go beyond preliminary, much less produce results. Note, for instance, that the ongoing investigation of ghost flood control projects is still preliminary after almost a year. Before you know it, elections are here and everything will be forgotten.
The reason for this is very simple. Corrupt officials investigate fellow corrupt officials. They go through the motions when in fact they are covering up for one another. One can only feel sorry for the fall guys. This is systemic corruption. The whole system is corrupt, not just parts of it.
Thus, it’s no longer this or that Mayor, this or that Governor, this or that Congressman, this or that Senator, this or that Cabinet Secretary or this President, that is corrupt. The entire political system is corrupt. Individuals working within the system either operate according to its corrupt mechanics, bail out or get kicked out.
It’s also no longer this or that policeman, this or that Customs official, this or that Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) examiner, this or that staffer from the Land Transportation Office (LTO) that is corrupt. Police, Customs, BIR and LTO systems, to mention the more notorious agencies, operate on corrupt mechanics.
If you want a burglary investigated, the system requires you to spend for the meals and transportation of the investigators. If you don’t want to undergo the exams required to get a driver’s license, the system allows you to buy it from someone in the LTO. For a financial consideration, the system minimizes your tax obligation. Customs, of course, will release anything for the right price. Etc., Etc., Etc.
I am not imagining these. Filipinos know and have learned to adapt and survive. There are standard facilitation prices for all kinds of government transactions. These have grown so high over the years that lately we have been confronted with ghost projects. This means that contractors and government officials share and feast on the total cost of the project as their commission. They have never had it so good and they seem to be getting away with it.
If one wants to minimize the grease or facilitation money, one has to know somebody in the agency concerned. Either that or you have to know somebody who knows somebody in the agency concerned. This is the patronage system at work.
But before we blame systemic corruption on our officials and bureaucrats, we must realize that we are equally to blame for allowing the practice. Many who can afford take the easy way out and pay. Poor farmers, fisher folks, vendors and construction workers have to run to a political patron and incur a debt that they pay come election time.
This simply has to stop. But the favored ruling elite will never do it. It’s up to concerned citizens to stop systemic corruption before it brings the whole nation down. Time for an organized fight against systemic corruption. I’m sure there’s a concerned group nearby. Go join it.