New campaign: 'I Paid a Bribe'

The problem with ignoramuses is that they don’t know they are. So instead of humbly admitting and atoning, they nastily hit back at Antonio Calipjo Go for exposing their error-filled textbooks. Sadly their organized media attacks against Go didn’t correct the boo-boos. Entries like “Is what this man say true?” in a grammar guide, or “Humans may turn blue when they cry” in a science manual, persist to miseducate. Sadder still, the wrong publishers, authors and their hit men have succeeded in wearing down Go into retreating. Go is giving up whistle blowing on flawed school materials, saying it’s the education office’s job anyway. Let’s hope the new education leaders review the materials. So copious are the mistakes of fact, usage and sense — up to hundreds per textbook — that they threaten to create a generation of ninnies. And those kids will grow up not learning the true meaning of “ignorance is bliss.”

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Last month I wrote about a quiet deal by Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez to free Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia. The deal allegedly would revert to the ex-Army comptroller two condos in New York City, a house in Ohio, and million-dollar deposits in America. All this, in return for ceding to the government the P50 million or so that he hurriedly withdrew from various accounts when his plunder was exposed in 2004. Garcia has but to plead guilty to the lesser offense of indirect bribery, and the Ombudsman would drop the no-bail plunder case against him. Involved too is the forfeiture rap for unexplained P302-million wealth on a general’s pay of P650,000 a year.

Gutierrez supposedly had submitted the plea bargain last year to the Sandiganbayan for approval. I have been asking her and the anti-graft court for a copy. Last week came separate but same replies. Robert Kallos, deputy special prosecutor, cited the sub judice rule in refusing my request. So did Renato Bocar, executive clerk of court. Curiously they claimed in almost exact wording that the rule bars them from disclosing judicial matters that may influence the court or prejudge a case.

Still, silence is assent. Refusal to give a document means it exists. What makes the deal hot is talk in military circles that one of the two condos, in the luxury Trump Place, 502 Park Avenue, actually belongs to somebody else — who now wants it back.

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Corruption thrives in India, as in most unripe democracies in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In top and low levels, government starts moving only if greased with bribes. Politicos and bureaucrats devise different ways to send home the message: outright extortion, roundabout insinuation, or delaying licenses and papers. Whatever, Indians come face to face with corruption everyday. Hardest hit are the poor because of their inability to give, and those who have no choice but to pay up or suffer worse. A recent celebrated case is of a widow who was told to bribe an agency boss in order to be listed as eligible for free food. Social watchdogs note a growing anger and frustration with bribery, but ironically a high level of tolerance as well. Many citizens habitually offer bribes in exchange for services, further perpetuating sleaze.

So with the Philippines. Any government action requires “tong-pats.” Whether to collect a pension or elude a traffic citation, citizens must pony up. More so with big-ticket deals like military sales or public utility awards. It’s not only in the executive; citizens need to bribe as well in order to get a law passed or a court case decided. Those who cannot bribe because poor — 35 percent of the population — get no service, except from the rare sterling agency and public servant.

On India’s Independence Day last August 15 the people-power group Janaagraha launched a unique campaign against dirty inducement. “I Paid a Bribe” encourages citizens to report who they have had to bribe of late, what price, when, where and why. Also, incidents when they simply refused to pay bribe, or were not asked for any but still served ably. Treated as victims, the bribers are asked to fill out forms, or submit to videotaping and quoting in blog-casts. (Check out http://ipaidabribe.com)

“I Paid a Bribe” is essentially people empowerment against the sleaze that makes them poorer. It makes them realize through action that curbing corruption is in their hands, that they can lick it, and that they can change government attitudes up and down.

The program is so apt for the Philippines as well. Eufemio Domingo, former head of the Commission on Audit and the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission, has long prescribed ostracism as the pill for graft. Filipinos hate corruption, he noted, but love having the corrupt in their birthdays and weddings. He said citizens should get up and leave whenever a grafter enters a place or event. Public ridicule is far worse punishment than prison. And exposure through “I Paid a Bribe” is a good start for it.

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“Some people cannot live to the full without emptying the lives of others.” Shafts of Light, Fr. Guido Arguelles, SJ

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