How corruption disrupts our lives

Everyone’s at a loss now that the Supreme Court has scrapped the Comelec supply contract for automated counting machines. With a P200-billion budget deficit in 2003 and still no budget for 2004, Malacañang is scrounging around for P400 million so the Comelec can hire personnel for a tedious manual counting. Congress is rushing to see if the machines can still be used legally for balloting in selected areas. The Solicitor General is racking his head for ways to retrieve the P800 million that the Comelec already paid to the supplier. Political parties are wary that the election may not push through as the Constitution requires on the second Monday of May. And the public has turned jittery about the possibility of violence arising from uncertainties.

It’s no fault of the Court. It did right in voiding the deal for breaking the Comelec’s own bidding rules for an experienced supplier and a surety against electronic dagdag-bawas (vote padding-shaving). It’s the Comelec that flubbed by signing a contract grossly and manifestly disadvantageous to the public interest. The culprits may now be denying any kickbacks, but negligence is still graft. And graft disrupts the life of the nation and innocent individuals as well.

Countless are the examples of how corruption throws things awry. Because of anomalies in its bidding and construction, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport’s Terminal-3 remains unopened. Travel and tourism have been severely hampered. At the losing end are not only big hotels and airlines, but also small handicraftsmen and vendors of balut. All because of the greed of a few.

The PEA-Amari scam has put into question all reclamation works. While a half-dozen officials took billion-peso bribes, potential jobs for hundreds of skilled workers were put on hold. Other countries are earning $600 million each per year from reclamation, while the Philippines cannot find funds to repair roads.

Speaking of roads, kickbacks demanded by officials force contractors to pave only two-thirds of the required thickness of asphalt. A week of rain is enough to spring potholes. Commuters are trapped in floods and traffic, leading to untold losses in unproductive manhours and fuel.

Corruption destroys property and livelihoods. Laharscam, the poor construction of dikes to stop Mount Pinatubo’s lahar from cascading down town centers, led to permanent floods in large swaths of Central Luzon. Unabated dynamite fishing, due largely to mayors who couldn’t care less, has dwindled the catch of small coastal fishermen.

Corruption kills too. Local officials take money under the table from illegal quarrying and mining. in the process, they expose their constituents to deadly landslides. It has been found that 85 percent of urban air pollution is caused by vehicle emissions. And the worst polluters are two-stroke tricycles. Yet officials have succumbed to the lobby of drivers and operators to allow them on the road. The incidence of respiratory diseases and lung-cancer deaths are rising, meanwhile.

The hottest issues of the day can all be traced to corruption. Thieving AFP and PNP officers sell their guns to crime syndicates. Result: a crime wave. Businessmen are kidnapped for ransom, cellphones are snatched from students, porches of middle-class homes are climbed.

Legislators pass laws favoring vested interests, like electricity producers. Result: the PPA (purchased power adjustment) that forces consumers to pay for electricity that they don’t use.

Taxmen cut dirty deals with tax cheats. Undercollection of revenues deprives government of cash to assist farmers, build homes, buy textbooks.

Even the publication of textbooks has become a scam. Full of errors, the books keep the youth uneducated. And when they grow old and retire, they hardly have enough pensions, for their contributions to SSS and GSIS are misused by Malacañang appointees for personal profit.

* * *

The public, it seems, has not had enough of colorful tidbits about the man who sparked the unmaking of a President. First came a biopic, Chavit, about his rise from provincial governor to Malacañang adviser of Joseph Estrada. Then came a book, The Nine Lives of Luis Chavit Singson, that traces how he and his clan became embroiled in heady, often violent tobacco politics in Ilocos. Now comes a second book, At Tumestigo ang Asintado, in Filipino, on the events surrounding the Jueteng-gate exposé.

A compilation of newspaper columns of Atty. Jay C. de Castro, the book presents gory details of corruption in the highest places, and how Singson slowly unravelled them. It will be launched on Wednesday at the Club Filipino in San Juan, where Singson held in Oct. 2000 his first press briefing to denounce the funneling of gambling money to Malacañang.

* * *

The late 2004 national budget is not the only order of business the Senate needs to finish before the Feb. 6 recess. It has at least five economic-reform bills to tackle. Plus, the long-delayed tri-committee report on Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s criminal activities.

The death of Sen. Rene Cayetano had made it hard for the remaining 11-man majority to push for floor deliberations on the recommendation to indict Lacson for kidnapping, drug dealing and money laundering. There was then a dread that no less than a majority leader would switch to the 10-man minority, which could quash the report that took months to write. A leadership coup did revert the report to one of the investigating bodies.

Now that the election campaign has altered the makeup to a 13-8 majority, the committees can finally forward the report. And with Lacson showing disdain for the very partymates who used to cover for him, they might even vote with the majority to make him pay for his sordid past.

* * *

E-mail: [email protected]