Strangled by red tape

Since 2010 we’ve seen another former president arrested and held without bail for plunder, and last year three senators were added to the list.

An ombudsman quit before she could be tried by an impeachment court. A chief justice faced trial and was convicted and ousted over unexplained wealth. He may one day join in detention the former president who appointed him as chief magistrate.

President Aquino has said he wants to see a big fish convicted before he steps down in 2016. At the rate the cases are crawling along, however, he may not get his wish. And with noon of June 30, 2016 just 18 months away, he himself may soon face an indictment for graft in connection with the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

His budget chief, one of his BFFs, now faces a plunder complaint in connection with the DAP. This, along with the filing of graft complaints against other Cabinet members and P-Noy’s political allies last year, plus the unprecedented six-month suspension of the national police chief, made daang matuwid look like a crooked path, or a road from which the President’s men were taking a detour.

With just 18 months left in his term, it seems P-Noy is in no mood for any drastic changes in his official family. Unlike in the treatment of opposition members accused of corruption, he’s a strong believer in the presumption of innocence when it comes to his allies. The past year will be remembered for this aspect of the much-touted campaign against graft.

We may have to wait until P-Noy’s retirement, or at least until after the 2016 elections are over, before administration allies are also indicted, arrested and held without bail in connection with the pork barrel scam. Those truckloads of Commission on Audit documents, damning nearly 200 congressmen and senators, will be left to rot by the roadside of daang matuwid.

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If P-Noy prefers to stall and look the other way when corruption is alleged in his own backyard, he can at least deal with red tape, which engenders graft at all levels of the bureaucracy.

Red tape has been cited as one of the biggest reasons for congestion in the Port of Manila, for the failure to build new power plants, and for the country’s dismal levels of foreign direct investment when compared with most of our neighbors.

Players in the energy industry have pointed out that from 150 to 169 signatures are needed just to get started if you want to build a power plant.

Other sectors have voiced similar complaints, saying that red tape is encountered from national agencies all the way down to the barangay.

P-Noy should discuss with his congressional allies the rationalization of the revenue-raising powers given to barangays and local governments. These units of government are given wide leeway in collecting various types of fees for their own use, often with little or no public accountability.

All over the city of Manila, for example, parking fees are collected by barangays, with motorists getting a slip of crudely mimeographed paper as “receipt.” The residents of Manila surely do not benefit from those collections.

Barangays collect various types of fees from businesses and for certain other services. Yet in many areas, barangay officials fail to do their tasks as stipulated by law, including preventing squatting, assisting the police in crime prevention, and removing obstructions in public areas.

In many cases, barangay officials themselves set up the obstructions, holding wakes (and the illegal numbers game called sakla) along narrow roads. During the Christmas holidays, traffic around the Bambang area in Manila was made even more horrid when the barangay decided to hold a gift-giving event for poor residents right along a busy street near a Chinese school.

City, municipal and provincial governments behave in similar fashion, but on a larger scale. Given the power to collect fees, it seems every official and clerk in a local government unit (LGU) must be given an opportunity to collect a particular fee. Anyone who asks – “Papano naman ako (What about me)?” – is given a share in the system that is designed for inefficiency.

All those innovative fees may be small, but applying and paying for them add to the already voluminous layers of red tape. Fees requiring personal inspection by LGU personnel, such as those for construction, also provide opportunities for corruption.

The result is that nightmare of needing to get nearly 170 signatures just to start one project.

The tedious, costly process is waived only for the local political kingpin, his relatives, cronies and flunkies. The same goes for other LGU and barangay officials. The luckless ones without connections are often forced to hire fixers or pay “facilitation fees.”

People who scoff at P-Noy’s crowing about reforms and the need to sustain the changes beyond his term are usually those who have encountered this rot in government. For these people, elections are nothing but a change from one set of crooks to another. Within the bureaucracy, there isn’t even any change. Just ask the folks who have been dealing with the Bureau of Customs since the 1986 people power revolt.

Even after nearly five years of daang matuwid, the country continues to rank low in the corruption index of Transparency International. Can P-Noy still make a dent in this problem within what’s left of his term? He won’t lose anything by trying.

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LETTERS: Someone wrote to ask where he could buy copies of “The Philippines Under Spain,” that compilation of Spanish-era historical documents translated into English. I bought my set from my favorite source of history books and local arts and crafts, Tradewinds Books and Silahis Center on Calle Real del Palacio (Gen. Luna) in Intramuros, in the same compound that houses Ilustrado restaurant.

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Former journalist Jaime Ramirez reacted to my article on Pinoy folk medicine. He said he had developed a “50-in-one” herbal capsule containing extracts from 50 different types of local plants that can treat or ease the symptoms of 50 types of degenerative illnesses and other afflictions. He said he submitted his product to the Department of Health for assessment but Enrique Ona, the DOH chief at the time, did not respond. Those interested can call 0947-860-2892 or 0999-940-1798.