Corruption & bribery: Habits or norms?

A little over four years ago (June 30, 2010), President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III (PNoy) delivered his inaugural speech.  It was not just refreshing but was so inspiring to some extent.  Though it may have sounded no different from the usual rhetoric an incoming president does, the speech was delivered by a leader who chose not just to be among us but to serve us.  We are his bosses, P.Noy then so declared. 

Indeed, P.Noy’s selection of words in his inaugural speech was impeccable and the delivery was simply perfect.  However, no matter how impeccable the choices were, and how perfect it was delivered, the fact remains that the entire nation looks up to him not just for a day.  Rhetoric, well-rehearsed at that, will always be right and appropriate.  Seeing it realized, however, needs strong commitment and wider participation.

Truth be told, he can’t do it alone.  While it is true that he will be tapping the best and the brightest among his peers for cabinet positions, he will soon realize that he will be working with men and women he never picked.  These are men and women where some of whom may have been voted unethically by his fellow countrymen to their respective offices.  These are men and women who must have well enhanced their acting prowess and financial might and obtained their positions expensively.  Undeniably too, during elections, some of them who are known snooty will tend to be accommodating.  Some who are condemned tightfisted will suddenly become so generous. 

Matter-of-factly, in every election, all these style-changing approaches are so compelling for these men and women who had been in it or have yet to squeeze themselves curiously into a messy world of entertainment we call politics, or distinctively, our brand of politics.  They are into a kind of politics that is totally dirty from beginning to end, where every coveted position has a price tag.  Consequently, therefore, anyone who had the money to afford it, surely, got it.  Obviously, it was a kind of politics where the politicians’ willingness to dangle millions was the main determinant.  Consequently, as they part with it, they shall be equally determined to get it back, of course, with profits.  

Certainly, P.Noy must already be aware as to how these crooks get them back.  There are countless of ways though, but, absolutely, not from their salaries.  Frankly, they can’t live with salaries alone.  Such countless of ways are the primary reasons of our being undisputedly on top of every corruption survey and despondently, at the bottom of every poverty incidences survey.

To address these concerns to a certain extent, President Aquino (PNoy) chose to be different, it seems.  Apparently opting for women power (with key or sensitive positions occupied by women), he took bolder steps (albeit, suspiciously, to some) to address the country’s worsening graft and corruption incidences.  Selectively implemented, as some critics and political opponents alleged, the results, so far, have been promising, at the very least.  To recall, for the first time in many years, the Filipinos understood what we may call the very essence of the word transparency.  This is so, as we witnessed the senate’s impeachment hearing of then Chief Justice Renato Corona.  Though, arguably, we may say that some senators have formed their decisions even before the hearings began and allegations of bribery (through DAP and PDAF) pervaded, the fact remains that the conduct was done fairly and transparently.  In fact, through such fair conduct some truths were revealed. 

Recently, with corruption and bribery so far unabated, multimillion worth of cases are filed with the Sandiganbayan against prominent lawmakers for alleged corruption.  Sadly though, it seems that despite these cases being filed, corruption would still persist.  As we all know, even before Senator Jinggoy Estrada can be arraigned, Presidential hopeful Jejomar Binay never hesitated in naming him as his Vice Presidential protégé. 

Such is the sad reality of our kind of politics.  A kind of politics that is mainly money-driven.  Where ordinary men from nowhere initially presented themselves to the people for service and became powerful businessmen once elected.  Or men who are already successful businessmen in their own right and run either to protect their interests or widen them.

Clearly, therefore, corruption and bribery have now become a habit.  So that, PNoy, in fulfilling his promises, he has to deal squarely with crooks who got elected into office; with unscrupulous government career officials who continued to prey on hapless citizens; and with a rotten system these men and women continued to comfortably adhere.  Otherwise, we shall soon see these habits becoming the country’s norms. 

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