By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
It might, by and large, be shocking to the Japanese but for us, it is normal.”
There was a government project in Benguet financed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The contractor was of course a Cordilleran. Like any other contractor in this country their main concern is to cheat the government in cahoots with officials supposed to monitor them.
After the project was finished the accountants had to get busy because the contractor had to pay the taxes from whatever he made from the project. Unfortunately, for the contractor, his accounting has to jibe with that of JICA. If the contractor followed the accounting system of JICA and the amounts that were disbursed to the project, he will lose several millions which he had to pay to the BIR.
By the way, the contractor who went by the name Fred was a Cordilleran with some Japanese blood running through his veins. I don’t know if that was a factor in his having bagged the project.
At any rate, Fred had a long conference with his accountant on how to manipulate the accounting records to bring down to the barest minimum the amount he had to pay as taxes. It was of course easy if only JICA’s accountants agreed to do the same so their figures would be consistent.
When they talked to the JICA’s Filipiino accountant, she said she could not do it unless it was approved by her Japanese boss. So a meeting was arranged between Fred’s accountant and the Japanese boss.
In the meeting, Fred’s accountant explained to the Japanese the figures and the documents, including reports, that had to be changed or altered to satisfy Fred’s desire. The work would be massive as the project had been going on for years and involved hundreds of millions of pesos.
To Fred, what he was asking was “normal.” Of course it was normal for Filipinos to engage in massive corrupt schemes. So he did not expect the reaction of the Japanese.
The Japanese was on a first name basis with Fred, like they were compatriots.
The Japanese, showing how shocked he was, told Fred’s accountant this, “Do you mean to say Fred will go through all these trouble to cheat his own government?”
Fred’s accountant was taken aback by the answer. He was so ashamed, feeling so small. Such had always been normal to him, until that time. He then realized, “Why indeed should one cheat his own?”
That answer of the Japanese summed up what is wrong with us. We don’t have a sense of ownership of our government. Our attitude, due to a lot of justifiable reasons, is that our government is not ours. It is owned by those who are in power. They treat the government as theirs and the rest of us are just their slaves or just stupid subjects to be cheated. Those in power treat our treasury as their piggy bank, and they feel that they can escape any kind of accountability to the people.
It started with the Spaniards who treated the government then as their own. Not ours. So anybody who could cheat the government then was a hero. For the government was the Spaniards’.
This was carried over through the decades and is now what prevails. The government is owned by the politicians. It is not yours, mine and ours.
For us to develop the attituded that the government is yours, mine and ours, we must all have an equal chance in taking advantage of opportunities and must equitably share in the country’s resources. But this might take forever to be realized.
As of now, anybody who can cheat the government feels good. He would even brag about it.
It might, by and large, be shocking to the Japanese but for us, it is normal.
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