“The government actually knows the solutions but does not have the will to stop or at least minimize the problem of corruption”
IT LOOKS like the doctrine of command responsibility has finally claimed its first senior government official in former DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan.
He has resigned effective Sept. 1 to take responsibility for the flood control debacle.
Whether this will satisfy those people demanding for his scalp is another matter.
But judging from the way media is playing the story, it appears that they want more.
There are now so many simultaneous investigations being planned or ongoing. Both chambers of Congress have started theirs together with the BuCor of all agencies.
The Office of the Ombudsman is also about to start theirs.
All this when the OP is about to form a supposedly unbiased independent commission to investigate the issue. All these government agencies should stand down to give a chance for this commission to do its job.
PBBM when interviewed pointed to Command Responsibility as the reason for Manny Bonoan’s resignation.
But what really is this doctrine all about and does the good Secretary’s act of resigning satisfy the conditions enumerated in Executive Order 226 dated Feb. 17, 1995 for Command Responsibility to have been invoked?
It is true that the head of any government agency is responsible for what goes on in that agency but there are elements to satisfy before pinning the entire blame on the head of agency or any subordinate unit head.
As a background, the doctrine of command responsibility found its beginnings from the military because of the need to pinpoint responsibility when atrocities are committed in times of war.
Hence, the term first appeared during the series of London conferences that eventually codified it in The Hague Convention lV of 1907 dealing on the Laws and Customs of War on Land.
For us, EO 226 of 1995 came about after a series of cases related to illegal drugs involving some personnel from the PNP.
Because of the difficulty of pinpointing those responsible, then PFVR issued the executive order to clearly define when and how the doctrine of command responsibility can be invoked.
There are two important features of the EO.
The first is that “any government official or officer of the PNP or that of any other law enforcement agency shall be held accountable for “Neglect of Duty” under the doctrine of command responsibility if he has knowledge that a crime or offense shall be committed or is being committed or has been committed by his subordinates or by others within his area or responsibility and, despite such knowledge, he did not take preventive or corrective action either before, during or immediately after its commission.
The second is “there is presumption of knowledge in any of the following circumstance; when the irregularities or illegal acts are widespread within his area of jurisdiction and when members of his immediate staff or office personnel are involved.”
Whether the two conditions have been met in the case of former Secretary Bonoan is not that important because he accepted his responsibility and resigned.
The bigger issue now should be to find ways to completely eradicate the corrupt culture in the disbursements of public funds that has been allowed to flourish all these years.
For one, the DPWH is not the only culprit here.
There is a lot of blame to go around like, for instance, the Commission on Audit and members of Congress.
This includes private contractors who willingly colluded with government officials to steal government funds.
In last Monday’s initial Congressional hearings, instead focusing on the cars, the lawmakers should have tried to find out the responsible agency and officials that allowed the several Discaya companies to bid on projects against each other which was clearly a conflict of interest.
But it was allowed. Whose fault was it? If the government officials were doing their jobs properly, that situation should not have occurred at all.
The unfortunate truth about all these hullabaloo is that the government actually knows the solutions but does not have the will to stop or at least minimize the problem.
The government can investigate all it wants but if there’s no will, there’s no way.
Regrettably, corruption in our country has reached the point where no one is satisfied with a small kickback anymore.
They want to steal almost everything. Propriety and moderation have simply completely disappeared.
