It is Christmas time and we should all be talking about joyful things. But there are troubling truths that we need to discuss and they cannot wait. With the eruption of Kanlaon, calamity funds are again urgently needed. There are people who are always excited and even happy whenever there are strong typhoons, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes. These are the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats who are in charge of disbursing calamity funds.
Until now, years after the devastating Super Typhoon Yolanda or Haiyan, people are still asking to be clarified and assured on how the officials spent about ?18 billion, and how were the foreign aids amounting to no less than $414 million allocated and disbursed by those entrusted with such a large sum of money. This phenomenon is not peculiar to the Philippines. All over the world, even in Africa and in Latin America, irregularities in the handling of such funds are the rule rather than the exception.
We recall the deadly Indian Ocean and Asian Tsunami in 2004, which caused hundreds of thousands deaths in Indonesia, Thailand and even as far as Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Singapore, and Malaysia, as well as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. There were also corruption cases in most of these countries in the handling of foreign aid and assistance, with the singular exception of Singapore, one of the top three most honest countries in the whole world. In fairness to Filipinos, our country does not have a monopoly on corrupt practices including the use of calamity funds.
As early as 2010, the Philippines enacted into law Republic Act 10121, supposedly strengthening the country's systems of disaster risk reduction and management. Its objectives include upholding the peoples' constitutional right to life and property by addressing the root causes of vulnerabilities to disasters, strengthening the country's institutional capacity for disaster risk reduction and management as well as building the resilience of local communities to disaster including the many impacts of climate change. Under this law, the whole nation led by the government is supposed to adhere to universally- accepted principles and standards of humanitarian assistance.
Section 22 of this law provides for the establishment of a National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund. This can be used for, among others, training of personnel, procurement of equipment, as well as for all expenses related to relief, recovery, and reconstruction and other expenditures in connection with natural and human-induced disasters and calamities. The LGUs have access to this fund in coordination with relevant national agencies. And given the culture and behavioral patterns of our politicians, these funds are extremely vulnerable to malpractices and all forms of shenanigans.
There are many prohibited acts in the use of these funds as enumerated under Section 19 of this law, and these acts are punishable by imprisonment of not less than six years nor more than 12 years for every count of such unlawful acts, or a fine of not less than ?50,000 nor more than half a million pesos or both such imprisonment and fine at the discretion of the trial court. The convicted public officials shall be perpetually disqualified from holding public offices, whether elective or appointive, as well as the forfeiture of retirement and other benefits.
In the Philippines and in other Asian countries, there is a pattern of corrupt practices in the management and use of calamity and disaster-related funds. The laws have been ineffective in preventing and prosecuting malpractices perpetrated by unscrupulous officials. It is the considered view of this writer that the penalty of six months is too light and should be made more severe. Misuse and diversion of such funds should be classified as crimes of economic sabotage.
The guilty should be meted life sentence with extreme deterrence against executive and legislative clemency. Perpetrators should even be hanged in other jurisdictions where the death penalty is still allowed.