Culture of corruption

CORRUPTION has been at the forefront of news over the past several weeks, with the story of one ex-top military official’s plunder and controversial plea bargain case unfolding into a tale of institutional corruption at the highest levels of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The revelation that there is corruption within the AFP did not really surprise most people. The AFP, just like most government agencies, is simply assumed to be engaged in one form of corruption or another. There has never been a dearth in media reports about corruption and in the Philippines, sad to say, corruption at the different levels of authority — from policemen taking bribes for minor road violations, public works officials getting a cut from infrastructure projects, local government officials pocketing development funds, to Presidents implicated in big deals — has become accepted as a way of life.

Rooted in the lack, or absence entirely, of accountability and transparency in governance, corruption has become so deeply ingrained in the system that people have come to believe that it is an evil that cannot be banished. After all, despite all the reports on corruption, who and how many have actually been pursued, charged, convicted, jailed and made to pay for stealing the people’s money?

But the extent of the sleaze in the recent headlines — hundreds and hundreds of millions of pesos going not just to the generals but also directly to their spouses and children for their leisure — did shock and anger the public still. And the courage by witnesses, former and current government and military workers, to reveal what they know of the systematic stealing of public funds at the risk of their and their family’s lives, have given new hope to the Filipino people that corruption can be possibly be stopped.

President Benigno Aquino III campaigned on a platform of fighting against corruption. So far, after almost a year in office, we have yet to see concrete accomplishments on this. Now that public sentiment is on a new high over this issue, the present administration needs to show cause that it will not disappoint the people.

Our local government officials will do well by this administration, if not for themselves, to show and prove that they are doing something to address corruption in their areas by starting with a more transparent reporting of local funds.

The Filipino people are tired, angry and clamoring to see the beginning of the end of this whole culture of corruption.

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