How about the corruption in other gov’t agencies?
The corruption and incompetence is massive in all government agencies including local government units. This is not limited to the Cordillera or Regiona 1. It is true everywhere. The norm is to drop a thousand pesos on every table where a signature has to be secured. But this is peanuts. It only happens in local governments for small matters like applications for building permits.
How many building permits are processed in big towns including cities? More than ten in a day. So a signatory to the application will get about P10,000.00 a day at P1,000.00 per signature per application. Definitely his monthly pay is nothing to this amount.
How about for big projects like housing ventures? The amounts involved are in the tens of thousands of pesos or even in the millions.
How rampant is this? Very rampant. It is as bad as the illegal drugs problem which decent citizens were not able to fathom until they kept on seeing on TV the thousands of users and pushers surrendering to authorities everyday.
For people whose work entails dealing with government bureaucracies, they had been seeing and been victims of the chronic corruption in government. It has become the new normal that they add up to their billings to clients the amounts that went to corruption in the form of representation expenses, facilitation fees, etc.. But no matter how normal it appeared, their ire was still being stoked last election by the repeated pronouncement of Mar Roxas and President PNoy on “Daang Matuwid.” How could they be so naive on the corruption on the ground? So they got the anger of the people in the form of the votes for Du30.
The question now being asked by people is, “What is being done or will be done by Du30’s administration? It is easy to catch the corrupt in the bureaucracy through entrapment techniques. Such is the best process as the bulk of the citizenry are reluctant to file complaints which might backfire to them. They might end up being sued or harassed and most don’t have the time, resources and patience to be dealing with this.
More so professionals and businessmen whose livelihood depends on getting bureaucrats to go by their bidding. In many ways, they thrive with the corrupt. Otherwise, their livelihood would run dry.
So the solution has to come from Du30’s boys. And it should be pursued relentlessly with the strongest of vigor and practical or creative strategies. For our illegal drugs problem is just a tip of the iceberg.**
