The silent majority?

Here’s something for despairing folks to chew on: there are many people in our bureaucracy who want good government, who are against the crooks’ kalakaran of “facilitation fees” and kickbacks.

This is according to Pasig Mayor Vico Sotto, who says he speaks from experience in his effort to promote good government in his city.

From my days as a reporter in various government agencies, I can believe the mayor’s assessment of the Philippine civil service. The question is whether the rotten eggs now outnumber the good ones.

What if the good ones – or those who want to be honest and efficient civil servants – constitute the majority, but feel helpless about wrongdoing in government, for numerous reasons including possible threats to their jobs or life?

While corruption has become entrenched across all levels of government, with red tape designed into systems and processes so that payment of grease money becomes the norm or kalakaran, I prefer to believe that there are many civil servants who want to take pride in honest and efficient service to the people. They want to be proud of their work, even if the compensation is modest.

What they need is some reassurance that many in their offices are of the same mindset. This can protect them from harassment or retaliation from colleagues, especially crooks who outrank them. Leadership by example is critical.

With that kind of reassurance, such government employees may no longer see the need to go with the flow, to live and let live. If provided with effective mechanisms for reporting wrongdoing, they can be encouraged to help in cleaning up their agencies. They need not see, hear and speak no evil.

They will typically want anonymity in reporting, but there must also be efficient mechanisms for verifying complaints to prevent the system from being abused for harassment.

*      *      *

Mayor Vico told The Philippine STAR’s “Truth on the Line” last Friday that apart from changing the mindset of government workers, institutional reforms are needed to plug opportunities for graft.

Among the initiatives implemented in Pasig, he says, is a transparency mechanism that promotes freedom of information, under which the city government makes available upon request the funding details for its projects and programs.

I surmise that the requesting process is not tortuous. This means it’s unlike the rules set by Malacañang, Congress and the Office of the Ombudsman even for documents that are supposed to be made public as required by law, such as public officials’ Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth.

Reports last year said Mayor Vico had been slapped with graft charges before the Office of the Ombudsman. But to this day, he says he has not been provided a copy of any graft complaint and he has not been invited by ombudsman probers to respond to any case. He doesn’t know if charges were ever truly filed, or if they were junked outright.

The mayor, who is running for a third and final term in the May elections, values in-person social engagement, and it is how he has largely carried out his election campaigns in his first two terms. But he takes the time to personally respond to at least some of the messages for him on social media.

With tens of thousands of such messages, a number of them plain disinformation, he picks those that may affect projects and programs of the city government, responding to them mainly to correct malicious or erroneous information.

*      *      *

Victor Ma. Regis Sotto, a.k.a. Mayor Vico, is no young Turk in politics. But at just 29 years old in his first bid for mayor, he trounced the reelectionist incumbent in 2019, Robert Eusebio, effectively ending the 27-year hold of the Eusebio dynasty in Pasig. Sotto garnered 209,370 votes or 63.27 percent against Eusebio’s 121,556 or 36.73 percent.

While Mayor Vico comes from a show biz family, he himself has shied away all his life from the entertainment limelight, much to the initial frustration of his mother, Coney Reyes. (Today, the mayor says his mom is so pleased and supportive of her politician son.)

But the Sotto name has made its mark in both entertainment and politics. People credited Mayor Vico’s famous surname for his impressive victory against the Eusebio dynasty.

His good looks surely helped with the voters. But perhaps his message calling for change also resonated among the people of Pasig.

During his first bid for mayor, we had the opportunity to interview him on One News’  “The Chiefs.” It was impressive how he deftly managed to send a message about the need for change in Pasig, without criticizing the Eusebios or picking a fight with his rivals.

These days the mayor has been the target of malicious fake news and disinformation. He says he knows who is behind the attacks, but declines to identify anyone.

There is even speculation that he is the actual target in the revival of the allegations that his famous father, Vic Sotto, was among the rapists of actress Pepsi Paloma.

Vic Sotto and Coney Reyes separated a long time ago, and Mayor Vico didn’t grow up with his biological father. The mayor declined to comment on this controversy, telling me he didn’t know enough about the issue.

He was most animated when talking about the reforms he has instituted in his six years as mayor. He hopes the changes in both the mindset of Pasig city employees and in the processes that are meant to discourage graft will be sustained.

What if the majority of workers in other government agencies also abhor crookedness and inefficiency, and move collectively to prevent wrongdoing and weed out the rotten eggs in their midst?

What if they are the silent majority, just waiting for some folks to lead the way toward lasting reforms?

That will be a genuine exercise of people power. It will be revolutionary.