ON THE commemoration of International Anti-Corruption Day on Monday, Dec. 9, the House committee on good government and public accountability announced that it would be wrapping up its hearings on the confidential funds associated with the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education.
This set of hearings gave the public much to talk about. Through a request to the Philippine Statistics Authority, we learned that 405 of the 677 names appearing on acknowledgment receipts were nonexistent. It is either they were all unregistered births — or that they were fictitious. Take your pick.
One lawmaker pointed out the need to follow the accountability trail, correctly expressing a concern that it might be the lower-level employees – special disbursing officers only in name who did as they were told, never mind if they exposed themselves to legal and financial liability – who would be pinned down for the scandal. Even as they initially evaded appearing before the panel, they eventually did so, revealing that they turned over the funds to certain military personnel who were part of the VP’s security group.
How then would the prying eyes of the public be able to follow what happens to the supposed investigation that would be conducted by the Armed Forces of its own personnel? Does this mean our questions are doomed to remain unanswered?
There are parallel efforts, of course, to ferret out the truth, one of which is the impeachment complaint filed against the VP. Still, the progress of the complaint and eventual trial, if it comes to pass, will be colored by the present and future political considerations of the lawmakers involved.
As we commemorate the global anti-corruption drive, let us remember: exacting accountability from officials requires so much more than making noise at denouncing them at the height of their media notoriety. Soon, other issues will distract the public again, and we run the risk of conveniently forgetting these efforts as we make room in our brains for other concerns.
When we lose interest and fail to act consistently, the guilty get away, emboldened to repeat their deeds the first chance they get. They bide their time for the people to forget, for the usual tedium of bureaucratic delays to take its toll. Let us not forget, too, that once 2025 kicks in, politicians’ words and actions will be driven by yet another event: the May elections.
Finally, it would be dangerous to presume that the audacity to engage in corruption, plunder, even, is limited to any one political camp. Once we think of and act on corruption depending on who is accused of committing it, instead of focusing on the act and the systems that enable it, we would lose the fight early on.
As we have, so many times before.
This year’s anti-corruption commemoration zooms in on the role of the youth and their role as “guardians of integrity.” Indeed if our present society continues to fail to act swiftly, decisively, and consistently on corruption, we would be consigning our youth to a future that is as grim as the one we wish they would not inherit.