During the last Philippine election campaign, the issue on graft and corruption in the government was over emphasised in the course of national candidates’campaign to attract sympathy from the voting public.

In electoral history of the country, the issue on graft and corruption has always been a consistent argument against the incumbent. In fact, no president, from the time of Roxas, won a second term in office, not until Marcos came, primarily due to the issue of graft and corruption. As the head of the government, the incumbent presidency was maligned and derided for the ‘graft and corruption’ in their administration, while ordinary people suffered and continue to emerse in poverty.

It was reasoned out that graft and corruption is one of the many evils or reasons why Filipinos are still wallowing in poverty. As far as I could remember, I am now a pensioner and part of the so-called grey army, I can say that nothing has changed in the country, graft and corruption is as prevalent today as when I left the Philippines more than two decades ago to live in Australia.

The UP Cultural Dictionary for Filipinos defines graft and corruption as ‘acts involving dishonesty in the conduct of public office, usually throught he acceptance of bribes and other shady means for private personal gain or to obtain unfair advantage in business and/or politics.’

It was further clarified that it is a very serious problem in Philippine government despite existing law, the Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, which defines and punishes graft and corruption in government. Experts in public administration is of the opinion that there exist ‘a culture of corruption’ in Philippine bureaucracy, even to the present time.

As we grew up to become matured and responsible Filipinos we became used to the violation and deviation from formal rules of conduct for private gains in public office. For one, police corruption is common and even defined as ‘an abuse of (police) authority, usually for personal gain. There seems to be a universal acceptance of the presence of this social cancer in Philippine society and yet no government has ever instituted action to stop its proliferation.

From the time of Quezon to the Marcos administrations, graft and corruption has been a mainstay and used by critics of the incumbent administration to highlight the evil effect of the practice to the population, in general. During the Magsaysay administration, the government understood the problem of the rural areas and embarked upon a programme of improving the land-tenure system, giving credit to the peasants, building roads and community development. But Magsaysay’s fight did little to improve the daily life of peasant farmers because Philippine society was then, and still is, dominated by the so-called ‘legitimate leaders’ representing supposedly the interest of masses but actually their own family interests. One may equate this situation to the present Ang Galing Pinoy party-list group represented by Congressman Mikey Arroyo, a case of a millionaire interests representing the interest of the downtrodden – the security guards and jeepney and bus drivers.

President Noynoy Aquino’s effort to eradicate graft and corruption seems getting a good start, although, only, it seems, the small fish, are caught in the administration’s campaign against this social malady in Filipino society.

Recently, an anti-graft court sentenced a state college president to six to 10 years in jail for putting his three sons on the school’s employment program for poor students and paying them salaries even if they did not report for work.

But Elpidio Locsin, Jr., president of the Iloilo State College of Fisheres, to me, is a small fry compared to those many believed have amassed their wealth as a result of dealing with the government. Like others guilty of this crime against society, Locsin apparently believed that being the head of the state educational body, he has the prerogatives to do whatever he wanted to do – to provide comfort to his family by allowing his three sons to receive remunerations from the college without reporting for work. For this small timer graft and corruption offender, he was meted 10 years in jail and asked to reimburse the school for the P5,100 that his children received from the school.

This case only show how slow justice moves in the Philippines. This crime took place between 1997 and 1998, and it is only in 2010, more than a decade after the crime was committed that the culprit finally asked to pay his dues to society.

Another allegation that came to mind discussing the Locsin case, is the belief by many that the former President Gloria Arroyo was behind the passage of the law creating another province in Camarines Sur for her youngest son as representative. I guess, this is one for the  Davide’s Truth Commission should look into.

Graft and corruption are not recent invention of Philippine bureaucracy.  The National Archives in Manila have in its possession many historical documents that relate to the many stories of graft and corruption that happened during Spanish colonial times. One such case that stands out and is quoted by Leonardo Davis in his book, The Philippines People, Poverty and Politics, is on how Teodoro Benedicto, a textile merchant during the Spanish period acquired almost 10,000 hectares of land along the foot of the Kanlaon mountain in 1871.

Archival records quoted by Davis show that Benedicto, through his henchmen, drove the farmers from the lands by force of arms, killing many of them and burning their homes. The archival sources of this gory event were actually testimonies of 21 farmers who survived the terrorism of the Benedicto’s armies that drove them off their land and deprived them of all their properties, even their standing crops. Graft and corruptions played an important part in this case, Benedicto continued possession of these vast properties by paying off the local politicians and law-enforcement agencies.

During the Japanese occupation, life was difficult and dangerous. The Japanese were ruthless, arrogant and cruel and these characterised the more than three years of their stay in the Philippines. The book described the period as ‘The smell of death, decay and starvation was everywhere. The  Japanese perpetrated the worst evils. Fort Santiago came to be associated with intimidation and torture. Nobody could be sure that he would not be arrested for, say, not bowing properly to a Japanese sentry at the street corner, or for not carrying his resi-dence certificate.’

Indeed, life was difficult, but there were Filipino opportunists who survived by taking advantage of that moment of chaos. They engaged in business with both the Japanese and their fellow citizens. Their activities reinforced the ‘wholdsale graft and corruption permeating [the Philippine] government, business and military circles, a practice that continued to the present day.’

The recent protest, through the media, made by one of the military generals in the present administration claiming about the prostitution of promotion in the military is not a new revelation. Not so long ago, the military played a significant role in the maintenance of corruption in Philippine bureaucracy and this came to the perception of the public during the Marcos administration. Davis wrote how it was during the Marcos regime when the military were given an upper hand in running the government.

Many government agencies in the Marcos government were headed by active and retired military officers. Among them: the National Economic Development Authority, the National Housing Authority, and the office of Community Development and Services Deliveries under the Ministry of Human Settlements. In one cited agency, five military men were in its roster of officers. Two of the most important government agencies, the Bureau of Customs and the Bureau of Posts were headed by reserve military officers.

It was also mentioned that high-ranking military officials were listed in the board of directors of several government corporations as corpo-ration directors receiving good money for their work or influence. In fact, the current Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, before he abandoned his post as defense minister of Marcos was holding directorship in at least 11 state owned companies.

The private sector was not spared by the military influence. The executive vice-president of the Manila Electric Company was a big time general while same ranking military officers sat on the board of the Allied Banking Corporation and American President Lines.

The presence of military officers and men in the logging, security services and entertainment business became a common knowledge. While high ranking officers manage to hold investments abroad, lower rank military officers manage ‘to engage in notorious and high-paying activities such as gun-for-hire, protection rackets, gun running, narcotics trafficking, smuggling and illegal gambling.’ All of them made considerable sums of money.

During the height of the Martial Law regime, there was a very low morale in the AFP with military personnel came to be feared, hated and despised under the Marcos regime. Davis strongly suggests that the AFP has ‘always been riddled with graft and corruption: equipment used for personal business; and operational and intelligence funds misappropriated.’ It was also common to see ordinary soldiers being assigned to guard the hacienda or sugar plantation of the military commander’s relatives.

As the current administration implement its election promise to solve poverty and eradicate graft and corruption in the government, it is interesting to quote from the book, for the last time:

‘The euphoria surrounding the new president [Cory not Nonoy] will last for a while. [Cory] Aquino is generally popular, especially with the media – both in the Philipines and worldwide; she is in marked contrast to Marcos; her promises are more convincing; and she has public charm. Further, US money will perpetuate the illusion of economic recovery. A number of new programmes will be announced, with greater sincerity and greater integrity than could be seen in those launched by Imelda Marcos. There will be popular moves; attested to recovery some of the money stolen by Marcos, his family and members of his administration. The legal battles could take years. Lawyers will grow fat. The cash gains to people in the barrios will be nil.’

Munting Nayon News Magazine