A hopeful administration

HAPPY WEEKEND
Gina Dizon

As President Benigno Aquino III vows to set up systems to curb if not stop corruption, it remains a big challenge on how this gargantuan task can be worked out.

Considering the seemingly cancerous nerves of corruption which has ingrained in Philippine politics along with dishonest attitude among corrupt government officials and officers, corruption remains the biggest plague that remains in Philippine politics eating people’s hearts and impoverishing them.

Amnesty International lists the Philippines number 139th with a high perception rate of 2.4 ranked in the same level with Pakistan and Bangladesh in its 2009 Worldwide Corruption Perception.Among 180 countries worldwide, the developed countries of New Zealand, Singapore, Denmark,Netherlands, Australia and Canada are among the top countries with low perception rates at 94.

Also, the 2006 World Competitiveness Survey by the Switzerland-based Institute for Management Development ranked the Philippines 60th on bribery and corruption among 61 countries surveyed. In the 2007 report of the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy PERC), the Philippines ranked the worst corrupt country in Asia, worsening sharply in 2006.

In September 2006, a World Bank Report on Worldwide Governance Indicators showed a sharp decline in the Philippines’ ranking in the control of corruption, from 50.5 percent in 1998 to 37.4 percent in 2005.

The public is familiar with these: the allegedly overpriced P1.2-billion Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard, the Commission on Elections’ P1.3-billion poll computerization program, the P728-million fertilizer scam and the $329-million national broadband network deal with ZTE Corp. Apart from these are scores of other “minor’’ cases that have not been given publicity.

Start with elections where money literally flows from candidates to the electorate buy votes. Where the money comes from is common knowledge that such may have been sourced from commissions from government contracts or funds technically released and tainted with questions of fund diversion. Such is common knowledge again that another round of corruption will follow.

We can only look at our Local Government Units and corrupt government agencies as theBureau of Internal Revenue and the Department of Public Works and Highways and take note of examples of corruption. We can see this in substandard infrastructure projects and bloated project costs. It may be your municipal hall or a community gym, a non-existent water project or a road rehabilitation with matching ripraps. Or it may involve a ghost project which never materialized. Or it may involve questionable travel expenses which goes double one’s monthly salary taken in the same month.
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Comes now come backing governor Leonard Mayaen as Mountain Province’s next governor. What changes will he bring for Mountain Province? And how about congressman-elect Maximo Dalog? As Dalog’s administration rocked with reported cases of corruption, a dark cloud hovers on how much and what he can do for Mountain Province people in his equally rocky way as congressman-elect.

This goes true with other provincial officials, municipal mayors and new members of the legislative board. How genuine will they implement programs to benefit their own constituents who brought them to their seats?

As Mountain Province stands still within the country’s poorest 20 provinces, the challenge of implementing programs honesty and genuinely for the good of the people remains a top call.
Corruption as everybody knows is common knowledge in this corrupt-ridden country. How to get rid of it is a standing question. It can be done if people question.