A Wild and Crazy Guy

I announced in my last published post that I am writing a book. I’d like you to know that I am right smack in the middle of that project. With one hand I held on to the book project and with the other hand, I typed this post in this blog. It worked out well because I ended up with a chapter that I can use in my book – after some editing, of course.

One of the later chapters in my book will be a discussion of official corruption. I cannot in conscience omit such a discussion since I am offering a Blueprint for a New Philippines in my book. I cannot imagine a new and improved Philippines without tackling the issue of official corruption.

Chapter 16 – A Wild and Crazy Guy

In chapter two, The End-Around, I was in full agreement with Tom Friedman, whose thesis about India is that the New India that is centered in Bangalore developed side-by-side with Old India. The latter has been known to have a stifling bureaucracy, somewhat corrupt, inefficient, argumentative, deeply-religious and overly-reliant on the Hindu caste system. The New India sneaked up on the older guy and did everything according to advanced, recognizably western, un-corrupt, efficient rules of management and resource allocation.

Bangalore might have been a typical American suburb, complete with upscale Indian-Americans who had grown up on McDonald's.

Enter the Philippines. A focus on great improvements in the level of education in the Philippines and the successful development of areas outside Metro Manila will mimic the success of Bangalore. For that matter, Guangdong, Shanghai, Macau and Ireland.

What the End-Around means is that the country shall avoid the confrontation with the corrupt culture in the existing metropolitan areas and concentrate its energies and investments in the more promising and newer industrial estates and commercial bases.

The more efficient, less corrupt culture that is expected to develop in the new concentrations of economic development shall serve as the model for the Filipino people. That fact alone will put pressure on the rest of the Philippines to shape up. The old will be shown up by the new, just as the rest of the Philippines is being shown up by the Subic Bay authority. Change will be perceived as having landed, its inevitability shall cause the old to lay down their arms and surrender to an army whose time has come.

This of course is only in theory. The jueteng lords will probably ignore the culture in the new industrial and commercial areas, like it isn't happening. The 20-percenters in the highest echelons of power may just become more sophisticated in their ways to better hide their nefarious activities.

It is not a given that the un-corrupt culture in the new industrial and commercial areas shall influence the traditional politicians (“trapos” for short, meaning dirty, grimy rags).

The country has a long history of corruption. It is not ordinary corruption, it’s major league. The late dictator Marcos is, after all, in the Guinness Book of World Records as having stolen the most from his country’s Treasury. The Philippines ranks high in corruption index year after year. Tackling corruption in the Philippines will be tough, very tough.

Tom Friedman's Bangalore model may in fact be only partly correct. The economic development in the new areas will tend to accelerate development in the older areas. But the change in culture, such as the eradication or the radical excision of corrupt elements in official Philippines may not be achievable within the foreseeable future.

CORRUPTION-FIGHTING AS A DISCIPLINE

A paper written by Vinay Bhargasa of the World Bank titled “Combating Corruption in the Philippines” lists 9 critical steps that the Philippines must take to successfully wipe out or minimize official corruption:

1. Reduce opportunities for corruption through policy changes;

2. Reform campaign finance laws to reduce the temptation for sitting public officials to plunder the treasuries under their control;

3. Increase public oversight of government operations;

4. Reform budget procedures;

5. Improve meritocracy in the civil service system;

6. Target selected departments where corruption is known to be rampant;

7. Enhance sanctions against those who are caught with their hand in the till;

8. Develop partnerships with the private sector;

9. Support judicial reforms (translation: get rid of corrupt judges).

Over the years, many important studies have come out that created road maps for officials if they really intend to clean house. Not one President after Marcos made a serious attempt to eradicate official corruption. That is extremely discouraging since the memory of a tyrannical and egregiously corrupt dictator was still fresh in everybody’s mind in the decades after Marcos.

Cory Aquino certainly didn’t begin to tackle corruption. Perhaps she couldn’t because she was busy fighting off the many coup attempts against her. Fidel Ramos had a relatively clean reputation, but again, no major initiative against official corruption came from his office. Which was disappointing since Ramos appeared to have the loyalty of Congress, the courts and the military. If anyone could succeed in launching a zero-tolerance policy against corruption in government, it was Ramos.

We all remember Joseph Estrada, who was convicted of plunder and served time in prison and under house arrest. The current occupant, Gloria M. Arroyo, is up to her eyeballs in accusations of 20-percent commissions on all major national government contracts.

The accusations against Mrs. Arroyo are just that: accusations. They have never been proven in court. The courts have not looked into the accusations either because the Ombudsman has already decided that the charges lacked merit. She arrived at that conclusion without, to my knowledge, conducting an investigation.

IT WILL TAKE A WILD AND CRAZY GUY

I have thought about the corruption problem many times and have concluded that the ideal President is a wild and crazy guy who has cancer or serious heart disease or who has nothing to lose. Such a President will not be afraid to die because he or she is dying anyway or is living la vida loca. It is only a matter of time before the guy moves on to the great beyond or falls into a ravine.

It will take someone who is fearless in the face of death threats to get the job done. We know that the President who issues an Executive Order declaring a zero-tolerance for corruption in government is immediately in danger of being assassinated.

I would recommend to such a President that he or she organize an elite corps of palace guards, made up of ex-U.S. Marines, Army Rangers and Navy Seals and under the command of the toughest Philippine Army general whose loyalty to the President is beyond suspicion.

Anti-corruption crack battalions shall fan out to the provinces to arrest known drug lords who have corrupted the police, known jueteng (numbers racket) lords, corrupt mayors and governors. Everybody else shall be on notice that every allegation of corrupt activity shall be investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Lifestyle investigations shall be conducted on all employees of the Bureau of Internal Revenue and Bureau of Customs to determine which employees are living beyond their means.

To give offending parties a chance to mend their ways, the President should erect a system that will encourage corrupt government officials to come forward and appeal for light sentences, provided that they promise to reform their ways and that they turn state witness.

To the extent that the government can afford to, the salaries of BIR, Customs, provincial and municipal treasury agents shall immediately be raised to a level that those employees can live on.

The President may also start a program that will reward agents who significantly increase their tax collections from one year to the next.

Bidding on government contracts is published in government websites, so there is supposedly transparency in procurement, a very important and the most corruption-susceptible area of government. Yet, bidding is still allegedly rigged so that contractors who have managed to infiltrate the backrooms where deals are made end up with the winning bids.

This is just an allegation, made internationally famous by Mr. Jun Lozada two years ago. It is important to note that the very high government officials that Mr. Lozada fingered as the culprits in the ZTE-Broadband mess have fought back and filed a libel and slander suit against him. Lozada's accusations are not being investigated by the Ombudsman, but he is being investigated for the alleged twin crimes of libel and slander.

This should strike fear in the hearts of Filipinos who may be thinking of spilling the beans on high government officials.

The President who issues the zero-tolerance Executive Order will likely receive the advice to make the computerized procurement system fool-proof so that the lowest bidders end up winning the contracts and not the ones who are the most skilled inside persons.

THE LIVING WAGE

Most government employees do not earn enough to feed their families. That is just a fact of life in the Philippines. Either the government increases salaries of government employees across the board or government offices should allow tipping in certain areas. Yes, tipping.

We tip doormen, parking attendants, car wash employees, the newspaper delivery guy, the landscaper, the waitress, the taxi driver, the bartender.

Why should we not tip government employees who facilitate the processing of our papers?

If we introduce tipping in government offices, we must insist that the tips are handed out after the service is rendered, not before. If the tip precedes the service, it is a bribe. If it’s after the service is rendered, it’s a tip.

A few years ago, I came across a newspaper article which reported that in Indonesia the government was experimenting with allowing government employees who provide service to the public directly to accept tips. We know that under most countries’ laws, tipping to government employees is illegal because it is presumed to be indistinguishable from a bribe.

I don’t know what the outcome of that Indonesian experiment was. There simply isn’t any follow-up news about it. I would not be surprised if it was scrapped because the devil is in the details.

The possibility that a system of tipping to government employees in the Philippines, however, is alluring. What if a system can be devised that will allow the public to tip government employees? Would the Philippine Congress legalize tipping?

I tossed this idea in my head and came up with the following guidelines:

1. The tip must be given after service is rendered, not before.

2. The tip must be dropped in a collection box and not given to the individual who provided the service. This assures that everybody in the government office benefits;

3. The method of sharing the tips must be equitable. Those who face and directly provide service to the public must get a larger share of the tips because it is logical to infer that the tips were caused by the good service provided by the front-line employees.

4. Management must maintain records of each day’s collections, but must be careful not to accept a share of the tips. The purpose of the tips is to supplement the income of the grossly underpaid government employees in the Philippines; management must not take a piece of the pie.

5. The program must be periodically evaluated to determine if the tips actually cause government employees to work faster, harder and more conscientiously. If letters are received from the public that positively comment on the help they’ve been provided, management must make a big deal of them.

We are all too quick to condemn government employees who are on the take, we forget that these are human beings with certain needs that are probably not being met because they are receiving coolie wages.

A MIXED BAG

The President who issues the zero-tolerance Executive Order also has the responsibility to figure out ways to increase the wage rates of government employees – especially those at the bottom of the scale. The zero-tolerance policy must be perceived as fair. The corrupt government officials will consider the President Public Enemy Number One in any conceivable scenario, but the lowliest of government clerical workers will respond positively if they sense that the President is at least trying to be fair.

A move to increase the salaries of BIR, Customs and municipal and provincial treasury agents will send the signal that the President is meeting the agents halfway.

This is not to suggest that all BIR, Customs and Treasury agents are corrupt, or that a majority of them are. I am going on the basis of perceptions and hearsay evidence. The perception of rampant corruption in the ranks of tax collectors dates back to the biblical times and is already etched in our subconscious.

THE UPCOMING PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Of all the candidates running for the Presidency of the Philippines in next month’s elections, the one who stands out as the ultimate corruption fighter is Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, III. Noynoy promises to go after corrupt politicians, including the outgoing President and her entourage, if it can be shown that there is a case against any or all of them.

The people are delirious. If Noynoy follows through on his promise of accountability for the perpetrators of one of the biggest snow-jobs on the Filipino people - the Gloria Arroyo presidency - he will restore the people’s faith in their government. Filipinos want to passionately believe in their government, but they must be shown that their faith will not be misplaced.

People are quick to point out that Noynoy has not done much to deserve the Presidency of the Philippines. Nobody goes into the Presidency deserving it. Everybody goes in and learns on the job. Savvy advisers will help, but the new President must learn whom to trust and when to go with his instincts, ignoring the advice of sages.

There are many “correct” decisions one could make when faced with a conundrum. Presidents must choose the correct course of action that benefits the people most. This means that the candidate with a heart, an empathy and a love for the people is always the best choice.

Not the most successful, or the most experienced. People can be successful and experienced while doing the wrong things.

The biggest problem in governance is the endemic corruption at the highest levels. The candidate who has a reputation for a lifetime of un-corrupt and caring politics is what the country needs today.

There is no other intelligent choice in the upcoming presidential election. It’s Noynoy or bust!

I'm sure that Noynoy's administration will be an important first salvo against the corruption godzilla that lives in Metro Manila's rivers. For that, we will enshrine Noynoy a hero at the end of his term.

But it will still take a wild and crazy guy to get the job done. Perhaps the one who follows Noynoy in 2016?