By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
A lot of people like me are following the Congressional hearings, especially in the Senate, where corruption related to infrastructure is the fodder.
The proceedings clearly show that corruption is metastasizing like a cancer. It is already in an advance stage.
They say, it is systemic. I say it is more than that as it involves not only one system but a confluence of systems. It involves procedural, political, judicial, extra-legal, national-regional interaction systems, among others.
Whatever system or systems in place is/are in a state of disrepair. The good and the bad are so intertwined, things are actually disconnected.
What is flagrant is that many of our politicians are so engrossed in their selfish interests that they are already blind to the plight of the people that they are supposed to serve.
Never mind if people are drowning in floods, get bruises due to bad roads or get whacked by collapsing sub-standard bridges or buildings even with just mild tremors or typhoons. To many politicians, people’s lives seem not to amount to anything except during election time.
A lot of our current bunch of politicians are that insensitive. Their eyes are focused only to one direction: only to where something glitters at the end that they could pluck for themselves. As they pass by, they do not see emaciated people with big placards loudly emblazoned by a plea, WE NEED HELP.
There is disconnect everywhere.
Politicians use gutteral language in their supposed august halls. They shout only to defend themselves from accusations of wrongdoings even when a host of evidence already point to such reality. They do not answer accusations against them but point to other politicians’ follies to “defend” themselves.
It is a travesty on their lofty vow of prioritizing the welfare of their constituents. The word shameful or disgraceful is not even apt to describe their avarice.
The current Congressional proceedings are taking away so much important time, that could be used instead to finding ways in protecting the people from their current travails. Or to plan for a better future for all.
Amidst the congressional brouhaha, a few politicians had shown redeeming values as they are showing real concerns for the people.
They talked about something that concerns us all. They pointed out that the rice importation ban imposed for September and October is not helping our farmers and our consumers at all. In parts of some provinces (Pangasinan, Isabela, Nueva Ecija, Bulacan and Oriental Mindoro) palay farm gate prices plunged to PhP 6-9.00/kg, sometimes going down to as low as PhP 5.00/kg. It is a far cry from the promised PhP17.00/kg.
The fall in prices was aggravated, according to Rep. Ana Marie Bondoc, by the Rice Tariffication Law. It was noted that unrestricted imports and tariff cuts from 35% to 15% resulted to rice oversupply.
This is a situation that our solons should focus their energies to, in order to help our farmers who belong to the poorest of the poor. There is a disconnect here that should be remedied without delay.
A friend way back from my college days, Dr. Ted Mendoza, sent me his article pointing out possible ways to address our corruption problems in his “solution mix”. Mendoza mentioned the examples of Singapore, South Korea, Brazil, Estonia and Georgia.
I summarized the points for this piece:
1. Digitize government services; 2. Make procurement records public; 3. Total dismantling of
corrupt agencies; 4. Consistent enforcement of laws; 5. Participatory budgeting by LGUs and local communities; 5. Creation of Independent judiciary and enforcement bodies that are insulated from political interference; and 6. There should be election reforms to break the monopoly of wealthy dynasties. I will hasten to add here, 7. Break the patronage politics such as in hiring of personnel.
To help the farmers, a few lawmakers are suggesting that the PhP7,000 assistance to registered farmers should be increased to P20,000-P25,000. Also the intent of the E.O. 93 (Rice importation ban for 2 months) to buy palay at PhP17/kg should be followed by the LGUs. Well, this could be funded from the recovered ghost Flood Control Projects fund or the kickbacks from such.
As for me, the revision of thew Rice Tariffication Law should be forthwith! **
