Corruption: The Philippines' new social cancer

Dr Jose P Rizal's Noli Me Tangere is about the social cancer that inflicted too much pains and sufferings to the Filipinos during the Spanish regime. That is why its title means "Touch Me Not" because the cancer was so malignant that the slightest touch would exacerbate the pains. Today, that social cancer is even worse, damaging more than 11 million people.

El Filibusterismo is about the rebels who wanted to solve corruption by overthrowing the oppressive regime or to undertake a surgical operation of the national body that was afflicted by an unabated social, economic and political cancer. Today, our country is identified as one of the most corrupt countries in the whole world. According to the World Corruption Perception Index, we are number 115 out of more than 200 countries tested on the basis of generally-accepted global criteria for governance and public administration of public funds. In 2012, we were already rated 34, Corruption is not a new invention in the Philippines. Corruption existed during the time of Aguinaldo but it worsened during the times of Quirino, Marcos and GMA. Today our rating is still 34 on a scale of 0 to 100.

The least corrupt countries with their respective ratings are: New Zealand, 88; Denmark, 88; Finland, Switzerland, Singapore and Sweden all 85; Norway, 84; Netherlands, 82; Luxembourg and Germany, 80; Canada, UK, Australia and Hong Kong, all 77: Austria, Belgium, 76: Iceland and Estonia, 75. The worst countries are Somalia, and South Sudan, 12; Syria, 14; Yemen and Venezuela, 15; Sudan and Equatorial Guinea, 16; Libya,17; North Korea, Haiti and Congo, 18; Burundi, Turkmenistan, Guinea Bisau, and Afghanistan, 19; Comoros, Eritrea,  Cambodia and Chad, 21; Honduras and Zimbabwe, 24; and finally, Madagascar, Tajikistan, Cameroon, Mozambique, Nigeria, Guatemala, Iran and Lebanon with 25.

Well-known countries with better ratings than the Philippines are Japan, 74; Ireland, 72; United Arab Emirates, 71; France, 69; USA 67; Qatar, 63; Spain 62; Portugal 61; South Korea, 61; Brunei and Israel, 60; Saudi Arabia, 53; Malaysia, 51; South Africa, 44; Argentina, China, Kuwait and Bahrain, 42; India 40; Brazil 38; Indonesia, 37. Thailand 36. Those that are worse than the Philippines's rating of 34  are Egypt, 33; Mexico, 31; Laos, 29; Myanmar 28; Papua New Guinea, 27and Bangladesh 26. The highest rating obtained by the Philippines was 38 in 2014. We have not reached 40 and that is a very bad grade on a scale of 0 to 100.

In his last State of the Nation Address, the President declared that "corruption is endemic in government" and that "nobody can stop corruption unless you overturn the government". That was a far cry from his promise in 2016 that he would not allow even "a whiff of corruption". This year, the COA released a report questioning some 67.3 bullion expenses of the DOH. This includes P41 billion transferred by DOH to the DBM's Procurement Service Department. We all hear the Senate's Blue Ribbon investigation of a company formed only in September 2019 with less than a million capital which allegedly cornered supply contracts worth P11 billion.

The COA has raised a lot of red flags and the Ombudsman has filed a lot of cases. In this country, how many senators had been arrested and detained due to alleged graft, and how many presidents had either been impeached or charged with plunder and other serious charges? The Philippines is bound to go down to the levels of Somalia and Sudan if we elect another president whose name has always been linked to many shenanigans. When will the Filipinos ever learn?