System is rotten

One thing we must accept as reality is just how rotten our system is. We can be sure they have been stealing our tax money not just with ghost flood control projects but also when they build bridges, highways and farm-to-pocket roads.

- BOO CHANCO

It must be the same sad story in the procurement of government supplies from medicines to computers and bond paper. Not to forget, ghost employees too. Irrigation systems, fertilizers and farm equipment are also largely overpriced and substandard.

We constantly hear of corruption in such offices as the BIR and Customs. From the expensive jewelry, high-end cars and Patek wrist watches they use, the stories must be true.

Honest bureaucrats are not encouraged. General Nicolas Torre stopped the useless insertion in the budget of P8 billion to buy firearms that he thought the PNP didn’t need. It got him fired.

Our system of governance is absolutely rotten. I am not sure anything meaningful can be done to fix it outside of a revolutionary government like what Cory Aquino had in 1986.

But even then, Mrs. Aquino wasted the opportunity to clean the system. Tita Cory just replaced the Marcos cronies with her own. Many of her relatives organized themselves into a Kamaganak Inc. and became the post-EDSA presidential cronies.

From the looks of it, the most we can do now are remedial measures to make the corruption situation somewhat bearable. Start by throwing some of the high-level crooks in prison.

For meaningful change, we must drastically change our national value system. We must stop exalting the rich regardless of how their wealth was obtained.

We should also help and encourage the rare honest and effective public servants like Mayor Tin Antonio of Alcala, Cagayan. I wrote about her last Monday. Private sector foundations and corporate CSR efforts should seek out these rarities and help fund their projects.