Elections & the Corruption Perceptions Index

Today is Chinese New Year.  So, together, we say, Kung Hei Fat Choy! 

This phrase doesn’t only mean cheers. As our Chinese friends tell us, you say such phrase together with wishes, such as, wishes for good health or luck. Thus, expect today that most of the politically involved personalities shall wish their national candidates the best results as their campaigns for the May, 2016 elections officially start tomorrow, February 9, 2016. 

Expect too that those national candidates who tried to preserve both their energy and money for a long and hard political battle ahead will surely come out smoking. Also, expect that alliances will either be shifting or consolidating. Further, expect animosities to escalate and politicians’ attitudes toward the voting public to aesthetically improve.   

Indeed, time and again, when roads are still filled with potholes and politicians seem not to care, you should know they don’t need anything from you. When faced with compelling necessities and where the much needed answers are undeniably in the politicians’ table and they seem to be scantily available, you should know that you are momentarily negligible. On the other hand, when a known snooty tend to be accommodating and a condemned tightfisted suddenly becomes so generous, you might entertain the idea that the world never runs out of miracles. But truth to tell, more likely, the man is into something else. 

The fact is, all style-changing approaches are so compelling for the men and women who had been in it or are yet to squeeze themselves curiously into a messy world of entertainment we call politics, or distinctively, our brand of politics. A kind of politics that is totally dirty from beginning to end. This is a kind of politics where every coveted position has a price tag. Therefore, anyone who can afford gets it. Obviously, it is a kind of politics where the politicians’ willingness to dangle billions or millions is the main determinant. Consequently, as they part with it, they shall be equally determined to get it back, of course, with profits.  

But how are returns assured?  There are countless of ways but, absolutely, not from their salaries. Certainly, they can’t live with salaries alone.  Such countless of ways are the primary reasons of our being undisputedly at the bottom of every corruption survey.

The annual Transparency International’s (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), for instance, can attest to this.  TI’s corruption surveys “draw on assessments and opinion surveys carried out by independent and reputable institutions. These surveys and assessments include questions related to the bribery of public officials, kickbacks in public procurement, embezzlement of public funds, and the effectiveness of public sector anti-corruption efforts”.

Sadly, despite PNoy’s continuing efforts to address the country’s worsening graft and corruption incidences, we fell ten notches down to 95th out of the 168 countries and territories surveyed in 2015. Remember, we were already among the upper 50 percent of the 175 countries included in the CPI survey in 2014 at 85th place. Not only that, we reduced our score from 38 last year to 35 this year. 

If there is any consolation, it is on the fact that before 2014, we’ve been cellar dwellers. In 2010, we were 134th.  In the 2011 survey (which included 183 countries) we were ranked 129th.  In the 2012 survey (which included 176 countries), our country ranked 105th.  In 2013, we moved 11 notches higher to 94th.   

Recently, with corruption still rampant, multimillion worth of cases are filed with the Sandiganbayan against prominent officials for alleged corruption. Sadly though, despite these cases being filed, it seems that corruption would still persist. As we all know, even some of our presidential hopefuls are perceived to be corrupt.  

Such is the sad reality of our kind of politics. A kind of politics that is mainly money-driven. Where ordinary men from nowhere initially presented themselves to the people for service and became powerful once elected. Or men who are already successful businessmen in their own right and run either to protect their interests or widen them. 

Clearly, therefore, corruption has now become a habit. So that, we have to deal squarely with these crooks by not electing them into office. Otherwise, with these unscrupulous politicians at the helm, coupled with a rotten system that these men and women continue to comfortably adhere, we shall soon see this habit becoming the country’s norm.

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