Institutionalized corruption

PERRYSCOPE

By Perry Diaz

President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III’s administration has been touting the government’s success in fighting corruption.   However, the numbers aren’t there.  Except for the small fries, a big fish has yet to be caught in P-Noy’s much heralded anti-corruption campaign, which was the linchpin of his crusade to eradicate poverty.  Indeed, his campaign slogan of “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap” (No corruption, no poverty) has lost its purpose and meaning.  Corruption is still around, more than 10 million households rated themselves as “poor,” almost eight million families claimed to be hungry, and joblessness is almost 30 percent.

Nobody would dispute that P-Noy is “honest and incorruptible,” which he is, without a shadow of a doubt.  He is the epitome of honesty in government.  If only his subordinates would follow his policy of “daang matuwid” – straight path – his government would be the envy of the world.  But, alas, it isn’t t so.  The Philippines still ranks high – or should I say, low – in the Corruption Perceptions Index where she ranked 129 out of 182 last year.  However, bad as it is, the country improved a little bit from previous years – 134 in 2010 when P-Noy assumed the presidency and 139 in 2009 during Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s time.

Nonetheless, the slow pace in ridding the Philippines of corruption still puts the country behind 11 Asian countries — Singapore (5), South Korea (43), Brunei (44), Malaysia (60), China (75), Thailand (80), Sri Lanka (86), India (95), Indonesia (100), Vietnam (112), and Bangladesh (120); and ahead of only four — Pakistan (134), Laos (154), Cambodia (164), and Myanmar (180).  By the looks of it, the Philippines is in bad company of third-world countries.  Ideally, it should be in the company of tiger economies like Malaysia, China, and Thailand, not to mention Singapore, which would be wishful thinking – that is, beyond our reach.  Sad to say, the Philippines still has a long way to go in eradicating corruption.

So, why can’t the Aquino administration make real stride in fighting corruption and prosecuting corrupt government officials?  There are thousands of cases gathering dust in the Office of the Ombudsman and the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court.  It seems like searching for evidence is like looking into a bottomless pit – you know it’s there but you can’t reach it.

A case in point was the celebrated impeachment case against former Chief Justice Renato Corona.  He was convicted based on his admission that he had secret dollar accounts that he did not disclose in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN).  But the prosecution failed to present evidence on the charges of corruption and ill-gotten wealth, which forced the prosecution to drop them.

Another case was former President Gloria Arroyo who was charged with five plunder cases.  However, due to insufficient evidence, the Ombudsman was forced to drop three of them.  Although Gloria was arraigned on the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) plunder case, the wheels of justice are not turning fast enough.  I would not be surprised if the case was dismissed.

Why?

Is it because no crime was committed that the charges were dropped?  There was prima facie evidence to file the charges but not enough to prosecute and convict them.

Follow the money

Corruption is all about money.   So, as Deep Throat had told Watergate investigators, “Follow the money,” four decades ago, it is still good advice today in tracking corrupt officials’ ill-gotten wealth.  If you can follow where they hide their ill-gotten money, gotcha!

In many countries, like the United States, people with ill-gotten wealth deposit their money in banks in Switzerland or the Cayman Islands, where bank secrecy laws protect the identity of depositors.  But in the Philippines, a corrupt official, a drug lord or a jueteng operator doesn’t need to go abroad to hide their dirty money.  Yep, they can go straight to their local bank and open a foreign currency deposit account and nobody can see it, not even government investigators.

Known as “Foreign Currency Deposit Act of the Philippines,” Republic Act (RA) 6426 was signed into law by then President Ferdinand E. Marcos in 1974 during the martial law era. The law states that any information can only be disclosed “upon written permission of the depositor.”   Many believe that it was enacted for the purpose of hiding the ill-gotten wealth of Marcos and his cronies.

But RA 6426 survived when the people power revolution toppled the Marcos dictatorship.  Oddly, it remains in the books to this day.  Perhaps, the lawmakers find it useful.

After Corona was impeached and removed from office, there was a move by a few lawmakers to amend or repeal RA 6426.  But P-Noy didn’t warm up to the idea and it ended up in limbo, never to see the light of day again.

Conspiracy?

Another bill that has been tossed around like a ping-pong ball was the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill.  FOI has been debated in Congress for many years.  When P-Noy ran for President in 2010, he promised to sign an FOI bill into law if he won the election.  But after he was sworn in as President, he showed reluctance in supporting it.

Last week, after Rep. Ben Evardone, Chairman of the House Public Information Committee, refused to put the FOI bill to a vote in his committee, FOI advocates claimed that there was a conspiracy to kill the bill and blamed P-Noy for his “flaccid support” for the bill.

But why would Evardone block the bill when he seemed to be supportive of it before?  Makes one wonder if he was just following orders from higher up?  Which reminds me of what he told the media said a few months ago.

In my article, “FOI: P-Noy’s foible” (August 29, 2012), I wrote: “In a recent televised interview with Failon Ngayon, he [Evardone] said that the Liberal Party doesn’t have a stand on the FOI bill and that it was not on P-Noy’s legislative priority agenda.  Likewise, the bill’s authors, who include Deputy Speaker Lorenzo ‘Erin’ Tañada III and Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello, are helpless in getting the bill moving in the committee.  And where is Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. in this moro-moro?  Well, he was more like the team’s coach. But the team’s owner was P-Noy.  And what P-Noy says is what they do.”

If P-Noy were really serious in fighting – nay, dismantling — institutionalized corruption, there are a few things that he could do: (1) Pass the FOI bill; (2) Remove the secrecy lid of RA 6426; (3) Comply fully with international anti-money laundering law requirements; and (4) decriminalize libel.

It’s a tall order, but if P-Noy wants to stand tall and leave a legacy, then no order is too tall that he cannot achieve.  It’s not easy but it certainly is worth the effort. (PerryDiaz@gmail.com)