How Pinoys may worsen corruption in the Philippines

(Published in Zamboanga Today on January 20, 2008.)

It was in 2004 during the change of command in the Armed Forces of the Philippines when President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said that corruption is strangling the Philippines, and called on all of us Filipinos to “join hands to root out this evil.”

The President’s rhetoric also mentioned that ill-gotten wealth would be seized from corrupt officials, both in the government and the military.

But that was nearly four years ago, and the Philippines is topping the ranks of corrupt nations in Asia. The President and all of us voting citizens have to be faulted for that.

We tolerate corruption when we take it as common and ordinary the taking of government supplies and bringing them home for our children to use in school. These are minute actions, but they contribute to the culture of corruption.

Former AFP financial controller Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia, who has been found by investigators to have stolen millions of dollars while in office was probably a classic exemption. His was the first open case of graft in the military.

We worsen corruption when we tolerate creation of government offices to accommodate retiring military officials who remain loyal to the president, or to whom the president is indebted with gratitude.

“Like all Filipinos, I demand to know the truth about corruption, whether in the military or outside the military,” Mrs. Arroyo had said before.

But we see those with questionable records and unresolved issues getting promotions and, if they are due for retirement or have already retired from the military, designated into positions to head or man agencies or task forces that are newly created, leaving some people to think that the offices were created to accommodate these personalities.

When we tolerate all these, or when things discreetly happen in the national capital region without the knowledge and concern of the greater majority in the remaining regions, then the seeds of corruption will continue to grow.

Some legislators have used Garcia’s case to lambast the entire military command (which in fairness, has more than half of its soldiers so noble and true to their profession), hurling allegations as if they can come to courts with clean hands.

When we tolerate these too verbose politicians who could not lift a finger to help their constituencies save their own family members, then we tolerate corruption as well.

Perhaps, we Filipinos may relate with a statement of American statesman Daniel Webster, which goes: “I apprehend no danger to our country from a foreign foe... Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence, I must confess that I do apprehend some danger.” (Frencie L. Carreon)