Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Corruption as a smart way of besting others

I wrote the Sisa Syndrome sometime in September 2010 (take a look at http://www.newphilrevolution.com/2010/09/filipinos-and-sisa-syndrome.html) and its very words are still true up to this day.

However, what I am concerned about is our slow descent towards strong man rule, a wrongful interpretation of History and us, as a people. Since the very founding of this nation, we, Filipinos are accustomed to the democratic way of living. We want to do things our way. We want to be free of doing things which we want to do.

As a consequence, our individual interests most often, clash with the collective interest. We want to be rich, but in doing so, several of us think of using government as their personal bank or cash cow. They indulge in worldly things at the expense of others. There is simply nothing good about that.

Often, in our hopelessness or when we are struck with that feeling, most of us think of just surrendering ourselves to the soft and comfortable bosom of a Leader who sweet talks us into believing that he knows the solution to our problems. We wrongfully submit to the beguiling words of this Leader only to learn later than he is just the same as the others.

Take the case of former president Benigno S. Aquino III. He started his administration on the right path only to squander everything in the last three years when he and his associates began raiding the public coffers. This same thing happened with Arroyo. Arroyo came into power as a counterpose against a perceived corrupt president Estrada only to prove herself as more coarse in constitutional thievery than him.

Why do we serve government? We are in government because we want to change things. That is supposed to be the motivation of people. Overtime, it became apparent that the prime reason why people indulge in politics is to gain a foothold in government for wealth generation.

These people of previous administrations and possibly even so in this administration are totally brazen in their desire to be "smarter than others" as what former First Lady Imelda Marcos once said. I agree---some are really smarter than others. Some are smart the good way, while others use their brains to get ahead of others thru stolen public funds.

Some steal big, others small. There is an ongoing principle while serving government---you need to achieve your personal quota. Someone once told me that in Malacanan, if you are a political appointee, you need to get at least 7 million pesos before you leave office. That's the minimum. In other agencies, the "minimum and guaranteed take" is between 30 to 40 million pesos especially if you take office in a regulatory agency.  Imagine a thousand people in government having that thought and taking action to realize that--you have minimum 30 billion pesos just going to the pockets of men in public office.

Charge them in court. Make them suffer. Beautiful words. Historically, this does not happen.

Just consider how many dismissed cases the Ombudsman and the Sandiganbayan dispense every single month and these cases are not small ones--those involving high government officials are expected to be dismissed over time. Eat dirt for a month or several months but expect none of the experience of spending equal time with murderers in the Bilibid in the end.

If you don't charge them in court, at least humiliate them in public. In most cases, this tactic fails. These people are so proud, so thick skinned and so accustomed with the game that they don't care if people accuse them of thievery. At least, as what Meldy says, " they are still smarter than others."

In my book, these smart alecks deserve a unique tokhang which I call "talk bang." Talk them out of it, but they continue their nefarious way, shoot them, kill them, mangle them and feed them to the crocs. For desert, serve their sons and daughters too.




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