Simmering wrath, escalating tension

I was not born yesterday. We were not born yesterday. We all knew corruption is prevalent in the country. We all knew there are government agencies that are entrenched in various corrupt practices and nefarious schemes.

But today, what makes everyone sick to the stomach is the sheer scale and extent of the kleptocracy that accompanies flood control programs. The looting of the national treasury equated with the pervasive decades-long flooding in the country has pushed the right buttons and hit the rawest nerves. While people are wading in floodwaters, many politicians and contractors are wading in cash bundles inside their luxury cars and luxurious abodes. While many children die of flood water-borne diseases, hardly able to afford decent health care services, other children have the audacity to flaunt P700,000 dinners. When the avarice-laden entitlement of a few is juxtaposed with the utter despair of many, or when the callous display of ostentatious lifestyles is drawn against a backdrop of poverty and misery, the inevitable consequence is collective consternation and rage.

And many believe that the seething nationwide rage is fast nearing its combustion point. The call for people power anew brings to mind the ghosts of the tumultuous past.

To be certain, we have been through these predicaments and mindsets before. We have clenched the same fists and raised the same voices when we trooped to EDSA back in 1986 to support the nation’s reawakening to democratic principles and to push for the ouster of the Marcoses from Malacañang. That was our first EDSA Revolution. We did the same when we returned to EDSA to clamor for change when then president Joseph Estrada was depicted at the center of the jueteng scandal. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were also a nation in disgust when the Pharmally scandal broke out and cast the spotlight on shady billion-peso deals involving COVID-19 supplies and masks.

As physicians, we are not spared occasional invites for corrupt and fraudulent practices. I would imagine physicians in their clinics would have second thoughts prescribing medications to non-seniors to avail of discounts that naturally should only be given to seniors. (Doc, puwede ba ang prescriptions sa pangalan ng Mother ko nalang para may discount?) We frown at requests for certifications of disability when an individual obviously does not have any – just so the poor guy can enjoy the benefits that a PWD enjoys. By and large, the ethical dilemmas that physicians confront in their clinics are infinitesimally insignificant compared to the scale of unethical and morally bankrupt schemes that “public servants” involved in anomalous flood control projects are dealing with. 

How did the flood control scandal go this far? One major difference is that the poor are at the center of the fiasco – as the most impacted sector of society.  The massive unconscionable display of kickback schemes, multi-tiered corrupt practices, non-existent (ghost) projects, outright overpricing and loot-sharing directly affect many poor communities constantly threatened by storm surges and flash floods during the typhoon season, a perennial calamitous event that plagues cities and municipalities – both in and outside Metro Manila.

The sidelight irony of the corruption narrative does not help in any way as it only adds fuel to the fire. The spectacle of a televised hearing where some of the investigators and committee members are essentially the ones who need to be investigated because they are named as beneficiaries of the corruption largesse only generates deeper disdain and outright anger. The outlandish display of arrogance and self-righteousness by politicians, who have surely convinced themselves of the lies that they constantly peddle, is an additional fuse for national indignation.

This comes at a time when many societies in other countries of the world have demonstrated how they wake up collectively and raise their voice against many issues in government. Nepal has been thrown into a riotous chaos. Indonesia was ablaze a few weeks ago. France is smoldering. The UK is a nation in fury. 

In fact, some of the political turmoil in other countries are also triggered by corruption scandals. Just fairly recently in Nepal, tens of thousands of young people (Gen Z) came out to protest government corruption and nepotism. (Sounds familiar?) The anti-government sentiment only grew stronger when the government banned 26 social media platforms, including WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook.  While the ban was viewed as the acute trigger of the current unrest, the protesters are also unleashing their longstanding and deep-rooted dissatisfaction with the country’s governing authorities – mostly centered on corruption.

In Indonesia, the protests erupted over a proposed R50 million (roughly $3,000) monthly housing allowance for parliament members, which is ten times Jakarta’s minimum wage. This has been cast alongside the simultaneous implementation of strict austerity measures, including significant cuts to education and health. (Sounds familiar again?) The legislative entitlement seemed puny compared to the scale of rapacious entitlement of our flood control project contractors and their benefactors in Congress.

We should rightfully be a nation disillusioned, disgusted and enraged by the images and sounds of families wallowing in ill-gotten wealth and squandering the people’s hard-earned wages paid through taxes. We expectedly should be a nation in wrath over the masterful siphoning of people’s taxes to personal coffers and pockets. We ought to be utterly disappointed when our taxes do not find their way back to our communities and societies via services, programs and projects that should improve lives and well-being. And most importantly, we certainly should not remain silent at the unimaginable depths of greed being unearthed and should demand a full reckoning of the pleasures and thrills these modern-day vultures indulge themselves in – at the people’s expense. At the people’s miserable expense.

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S. P. Javier is the medical director and interim co-CEO of Makati Medical Center.