“In the end, a nation that cannot be truthful, decent, and fair is a nation that will not endure — so let’s choose to be better, starting now”
In last Monday’s Senate hearing, two of the principal protagonists, namely Curlee Discaya and DPWH Engineer Brice Hernandez, revealed part of the modus operandi of how money changed hands between contractors and corrupt government officials.
More importantly, the Discaya couple submitted a sworn affidavit naming several lawmakers who allegedly demanded and received kickbacks from their company.
Remember that in the PDAF hearings involving Janet Napoles, she did not name names thinking perhaps that she would receive protection from government officials who benefited from the crime committed.
But in the end Napoles was left holding the bag and is now still languishing in jail.
Now that the code of silence has been broken, one would think that the House committee investigating the issue would have taken advantage of the revelations to learn more and better comprehend the dynamics of how government funds in the billions are being stolen. Instead, many of the questions being ask were more concentrated on warning Discaya and basically threatening him of perjury. They also punched on the money he made over the years and instead of asking him probing questions so he could reveal more.
One of the lawmakers named was even allowed to question and confront Discaya without being made to take an oath.
The revelations together with the privilege speech of Senator Ping Lacson last Tuesday is quite frankly very depressing to say the least.
It is what we Filipinos would term as garapalan na talaga.
The kind of money that is being mentioned is so staggering that we the public can only shake our heads in disbelief.
Judging from the trend of the House committee questioning, it would seem they already have their culprit.
But because some members of Congress have now been implicated, propriety dictates that both congressional hearings should now stop.
This is to allow the Office of the President to fast-track the formation of the so-called independent commission so that an investigation totally devoid of any political overtones can be conducted.
With what is being revealed, it would appear that there is a conspiracy among all the participants right from the start of a project to the end.
It is also worth reminding everyone that the contractors even if some or all of them are complicit in the crime did not make the rules.
They are simply taking advantage of many loopholes in the rules because of corrupt public officials.
If only our public officials are doing their jobs they should, there would be no flood control corruption mess that needs to be investigated.
Unfortunately, this culture of corruption has affected the efficiency of the entire government bureaucracy and this is proven by the country’s poor ratings in many international surveys in education, talent ranking and peace and order.
Our low foreign tourist arrivals no matter how the government tries to deodorize the problem can be traced to our country’s poor international reputation.
Ordinary citizens doing business with government agencies takes forever if one does not have any contacts or money to grease the hands of corrupt officials.
It is also taking its toll on our overall economic performance.
Foreign direct investments coming into the country compared to our neighbors is always low due to the difficulty of doing business here and exorbitant power rates.
Our world corruption index for instance is 115 among about 160 countries which is not something to brag about. We have to do a lot better if we want to attract more investments and tourists.
Corruption exists in all countries but what seems to make us different as the current investigations are showing is how corruption has metamorphosed over the years.
It used to be that corrupt officials did steal a little but generally left the bulk of the money so that a government project for instance can be properly completed.
That’s not the case anymore.
There is no more honor among thieves as the saying goes because the crooks no longer leave anything for the government to properly complete a project.
The current investigations is another chance to undertake a meaningful systemic reform not to eradicate corruption completely because that cannot be done but at least lessen it for the country to regain its pride as a nation.
