US Embassy abets RP corruption

President Estrada was too polite. When the World Bank president told Erap to his face right in Malacañang that in so many words, his government is hopelessly corrupt, Erap took it as calmly as a chastised schoolboy. In fact, Erap threw a few whacks at himself, as he remarked that government is indeed run like hell. That's typical "liberation" generation Pinoy reaction to an Americano.

We are not going to dispute Erap's observation which echoed something the late President Quezon once said about how preferable it would be to have a government run like hell by Filipinos than one run like heaven by Americans. The late President's hyperbole has come true.

But, we digress. The President should have been less polite with the sanctimonious Mr. James Wolfensohn, the American president of the World Bank. Erap should have told Mr. Wolfensohn to go take his homily on corruption and shove it up the roody poo candy ass of the American Ambassador.

That's how "The Rock" my son's favorite WWF wrestler would put it. It seems the American envoy, as well as the envoys of a number of European countries (Italy, France, Spain) and Canada need to hear that sermon on the evils of corruption.

I just learned from some senators that during a hearing on that scandalous Barangay Telephone Project, they were told the ambassadors of several OECD countries led by the United States have been putting extreme pressure on Malacañang to honor those highly overpriced contracts.

Here is the exact testimony of Malacañang official Assistant Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla as recorded in the minutes of a public hearing conducted by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee last week:

"MR. REMULLA: ...yes, there seems to be pressure coming from the US Embassy for us to approve these contracts, two contracts, Your Honor.

"THE CHAIRMAN (SEN. OSMEÑA): Are you aware of the fact that the American government has anti-corruption laws itself?

"MR. REMULLA: Yes, Your Honor.

"THE CHAIRMAN (SEN. OSMEÑA): And do you not find it surprising that the American Ambassador is now pressuring the Philippine government to approve a contract that is contrary to American law and violative of international law?

"MR. REMULLA: It's more surprising, Your Honor."

There it is in black and white. The US government says one thing and does another. It is one thing for these developed countries to use the money of their taxpayers to pay off corrupt officials in our government. It is totally another thing for them to expect future generations of Filipino taxpayers to pay the credits they are providing to cover those rotten deals.

How could officials of those OECD governments allow the use of their taxpayers' money in the form of Ex-Im credits and in the case of the US, AID funds to finance those overpriced telephone contracts? The overprice is so obvious and shockingly brazen. There was no public bidding, no transparency in the awarding of those telephone projects, something Mr. Wolfensohn was urging Erap to have more of.

One of the contracts was for as high as $33,173.21 for a telephone line negotiated down to a still overpriced $4,747 a line by the Erap administration. Local phone companies spend less than $1,500 a line, using the same suppliers.

That the US Embassy will now lead the other OECD embassies in pressuring Malacañang to go through with those contracts is nothing less than hypocrisy. We know the US Ambassador and he is, on a personal level, a nice and decent person. I am sure he does not enjoy having to intercede for a deal that is obviously tainted with corruption. But he has to do his job, dirty as it is.

The USIS sends me a ton of press releases and backgrounders, some of which I keep in my files. One of these was issued on Sept. 11, 1998 and talks about how the American Congress is in the final stages of enacting legislation that will make the US the first country to implement an international treaty outlawing bribery of foreign officials.

The press release went on to say that 29 OECD member states and five non-member states have signed the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. The US Senate, the press release reported, ratified the OECD treaty and passed enabling legislation.

The USIS press release recalled that the US criminalized bribery of foreign officials by US business in 1977 with the passage of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. A US Embassy spokesman says no law has been enacted to exempt foreign subsidiaries of American companies from coverage of the anti-corruption law. Does this mean Lucent Technologies, an American company can be liable for the obviously overpriced $20,256.11 per line barangay phone contract signed by its Swiss subsidiary with Ramos era DOTC officials?

The Europeans are veterans at this. Not too long ago, no less than former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was said to have lobbied then President Ramos to implement another overpriced contract, that of the British firm Marconi. I recall that in addition to the Iron Lady, the British Defense Secretary was also in on the act. Principles, apparently, take a back seat to business.

At the end of the day, we are just talking money. No sanctimonious speech from the World Bank president or a similar holier-than-thou press release from the USIS will change the fact that OECD governments are abetting international corruption, as the Barangay Telephone Project very well illustrates. That anti-corruption treaty the USIS press release was talking about is apparently useless.

While Mr. Estrada may well be deserving of the reminders of Mr. Wolfensohn, the admonition came from the wrong speaker. No one associated with an OECD government has the right to lecture any third world President, Prime Minister or potentate about the evils of corruption unless their own governments have started to practice what they preach.

Sayang. President Erap lost a golden opportunity to put these Gringos in their place. But then again, he is President of an impoverished country that needs World Bank loans badly. Erap had to be a gracious host. The one time Erap should have been drunk was the one time he was sober. He could have told them the ugly truth about their preaching... if only he took his Blue Label, instead of that sissy red wine because as you know... in vino...veritas.

Ernie Espiritu sent this one.

A woman walks into a drugstore and asks the pharmacist if he sells extra large condoms.

He replies, "Yes we do. Would you like to buy some?"

She responds, "No sir, but do you mind if I wait around here until someone does?"

(Boo Chanco's e-mail address is [email protected])