“We can at least minimize graft and corruption, but to wipe it out entirely is a big problem and almost impossible”
THE recent site inspection of President Marcos Jr. of a flood mitigation structure in Bulacan is a perfect example of what is happening to government projects where it seems the culture of graft and corruption is embedded, Santa Banana!
Take, for example, a government project costing, let’s say, 100 million pesos, awarded to a contractor with the government official sponsorship of the project getting 20 percent and with designers and other people in the public works department getting almost as much as another 20 percent.
It is easy to predict what can happen to a government project because of the culture of greed in the government.
It becomes a fight between corruption and public good.
It is easy to blame the contractor for a substandard bridge, for instance, because at the rate graft and corruption is embedded in government projects, contractors have to survive.
In the final analysis, Santa Banana, to survive, a contractor for instance has to make up for all the percentages of a contract given to corrupt public officials.
I recall the recent example of a bridge that collapsed and the reason for that is that the materials used in building that bridge were substandard and the bridge itself was ill-designed.
I wonder why the government never went through with investigating what happened to that bridge.
But it is easy to determine what happened because of the culture of graft and corruption in government.
You might ask, Santa Banana, what can be done to stop all these things.
I have been a journalist and columnist for over 70 years. I recall that people always complain against graft and corruption in government projects.
Personally I have serious doubts if graft and corruption will ever stop as far as government projects are concerned because of the culture of greed.
I believe it is almost impossible to stop it.
Yes, you can minimize graft and corruption in government projects but it cannot be stopped because the culture of greed of people in government has been embedded in the system.
That is the tragedy of the government because of the culture of graft and corruption, my gulay!
It would be impossible to audit every government project because there are millions of government projects going on.
You can only minimize it by setting up examples of people involved in graft and corruption spending the rest of their lives in prison, but, as I said,, at the rate things are going on it is impossible for government to stop the culture of graft and corruption which has always been the biggest complaint of the people.
I do not like to say this but there are many things happening which are beyond our control.
Take what happened to all the flood control projects in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces.
We can only estimate not only how much money was lost to graft and corruption that could have been spent to give the people better lives.
I do not know how President Marcos Jr. and his Cabinet will handle this problem of graft and corruption because it is already a culture of greed embedded in most government people.
All I can propose is for our government leaders to minimize it because the people are becoming the victims of all of the culture of greed embedded in the government.
In all the years I have been a journalist, graft and corruption in government has always been the biggest problem for every government leader to handle.
All I can say is that elections in fact promote the cycle of corruption because the constituents of elected officials demand and expect that the elected officials will help them, so the elected officials in turn will tell you, “Where will I get the money to help you and to make your lives better?”
That is why I present this problem to the government: how to solve this culture of greed.
It is actually the money of the people that could have been spent to make their lives better.
To me I am at a loss how to end graft and corruption in government.
All I can say is, we can at least minimize it, but to wipe it out entirely is a big problem and almost impossible.
