Reporting corruption

Bangkok—On Monday, The Nation, one of Thailand’s English daily newspapers, bannered a story about corruption, a familiar theme in the Philippines the obliteration of which the 100-days old government of President Benigno S. Aquino III is trying very hard to do.

The Nation says that the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva needs the help of the Thai populace to tackle the rising incidence of graft and corruption in the land of muay thai and the elephant. It said the social media, like Facebook, and a video clip contest, should create ‘waves of actions’ to lick the menace.

“The public need(s) to be guided on how they should act against it (corruption),” the newspaper quoted Utis Kaothien as having said at a roundtable discussion on graft and corruption last week.

Mr. Utis is senior adviser to Thailand’s National Anti-Corruption Commission. The panelists in the roundtable discussion, the newspaper reported, agreed that they should not wait for the government to act and that the private sector and the public must take a lead in fighting graft. They said reporting corruption is necessary.

The news comes ahead of next month’s International Anti-Corruption Conference, when delegates from all over the world gather in this charming capital to update one another on the progress of global battle against corruption.

President Aquino, this writer posits, should send an army of graft-busters to the conference, so that his war cry during the campaign—which carried him to Malacanang—will be revived and rejuvenated. Except in some pockets of the government like in the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Aquino’s battle is flagging.

I agree that reporting corruption, whether those done in private or public places, is a deterrent against the evil, but only a deterrent I say, not a cure.

Senator Franklin Drilon may, through the public hearings on the budget, report daily the corruption in many offices such as those in the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) whose former chief, now Rep. Augusto Syjuco, had allegedly used government money for unlawful purposes, but if Syjuco is not jailed, then the report may remain just that—a report.

He may bewail to high heavens the alleged corruption of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s lapdog, ex-secretary of Agriculture Bernie Fondevilla, who allegedly disbursed billions in agriculture funds ahead of the May 2010 elections, but if Fondevilla is not hauled off to jail, Drilon’s reportage of graft will remain just that—a temporary fodder to an excitable media.

For graft and corruption to be licked, the perpetrators need to be obliterated—punished. It’s as simple as that.

President Aquino’s strong-willed stand of pro-choice on the reproductive health issue should extend to the issue of graft and corruption. He should wield a bat and club the corrupt senseless.

Many Filipinos are crying for the blood of those who have pillaged the Republic and emptied the country’s coffers dry. You need proof? Read the feedback in the President’s website.

For example, in the National Labor Relations Commission, the quasi-judicial agency that arbitrates labor cases, there are about this office plenty of harsh words which the people are saying and which, fortunately, DOLE Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz and NLRC Chairman Gerardo Nograles are paying close attention to.

It’s a comfort that many NLRC commissioners are backing up Baldoz’s and Nograles’s call for reforms, like the creation of a National Efficiency and Integrity Board to, well, report and monitor shenanigans in the agency.

The NEIB, to be composed of labor, management, and government representatives, is envisioned not only to report and monitor, but also prevent and punish, graft and corruption at the NLRC.

The parallelisms in Thailand and the Philippines on the issue of graft and corruption are not coincidence. Both countries suffer heavily from corruption. Both realize that graft and corruption is a drag to good governance and economic rebirth.

Therefore, any concrete public action that will lead to the elimination, or even just to the reduction, of graft and corruption, is welcome.

Reporting it is a first step, but that first step should end up with the corrupt contracting pneumonia inside the cold walls and clutching at the cold bars of a prison. When that happens, many more people may be emboldened to come forward and denounce the termites eating up on our social frayed social fabric.