Lesson of Erap case lost on officialdom
There’s a big lesson in the Joseph Estrada verdict. If a President can be prosecuted and convicted for graft, so too may lower bureaucrats. And so too other Presidents.Will that sink into their minds and strike fear in their hearts? They don’t show it.
Red tape and petty sleaze have declined of late due to stricter civil service rules. Anti-graft watchdog Transparency & Accountability Network gave that good news last month. But TAN hastened to add that the secrecy that shrouds high-level government deals has given rise to grander, more lucrative corrupt practices.
TAN executive director Vincent Lazatin pointed out the irony during a workshop on dishonesty. Malacañang’s issuance last year of an anti-red tape executive order dramatically reduced under-the-table transacting and undue delays. But it is also Malacañang that prevents the scrutiny of major deals decried as onerous or overpriced.
Lazatin’s observation came amid cries to reveal the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement and the broadband supply from China’s ZTE Corp. Malacañang has since relented to prior ratification of the pact by the Senate before enforcing, as the Constitution requires. But contrary to constitutional rule for transparency, it still refuses to show the ZTE contract to aggrieved competitors, telecoms experts, businessmen, legislators and the media. And it’s been five months since the contract was signed on April 21 in Boao, Hainan, China, with President Gloria Arroyo no less witnessing.
Last Wednesday Trade Sec. Peter Favila snubbed the Question Hour on ZTE at the House of Reps because he didn’t get presidential clearance to talk. Transport and Communication Sec. Larry Mendoza declined, although he is the contract signatory and thus accountable officer. Expect the same to happen on Thursday at the Senate, where Finance Sec. Gary Teves, former economic czar Romy Neri, and seconds have been invited. A Malacañang factotum yelled to them to secure Arroyo’s assent to go, or else. Teves has gone anew on medical leave.
Opacity marked many recent government acts, among them the sale of sequestered assets. All run to hundreds of millions or billions of pesos. All are being questioned in Congress, the courts, or coffeeshop murmurs. But the worst embodiment of government contracting is the ZTE deal. It not only is being hidden from the public, but also is overpriced, based on the ignored offers of two rivals. An exclusive government broadband setup is even needless and would end up a white elephant, economists aver. Yet it would force Filipinos to repay a loan of $330 million (P16 billion) for 20 years at 3-4 percent interest.
Early this year the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy asked businessmen to rate government corruption from 0 as best possible score, to 10 as worst. They graded the Philippines 9. A Social Weather Station poll in March also found high disenchantment due to graft. Lazatin said it was becoming tougher for anti-graft groups like TAN to wring information and access documents from the Arroyo administration. Among such papers are the supposedly public statements of assets and liabilities of government men.
The situation is not about to improve. Last week five major business groups denounced “a growing culture of impunity” in the government. They wondered how Comelec chief Benjamin Abalos could travel at least four times to Shenzhen last year courtesy of ZTE executives, when he was supposed to be busy preparing for clean and orderly elections. They also warned Mendoza against belittling the outcry against secrecy in the deal.
The middle-class Black-and-White Movement also decried the officials’ “acquired narcissism.” People in high places, it noted, find it easy to behave in bizarre ways, as if election or appointment entitles them to do as they please, and operate under different rules because of stature.
Mendoza’s refusal alone to divulge the contract should be grounds for censure. The Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards requires officials to reply to requests within 15 days. The Red Tape Law further makes them produce complex papers within ten days. Yet Malacañang is silent about his silence.
Abalos’ admission of free travels also breaches the Code of Conduct. Yet the Comelec refuses to investigate him.
Estrada’s apologists maintain that if ever he took jueteng payola, he never stole from the public till. That may be hair-splitting. But the Arroyo administration has yet to explain fully the fertilizer scam that presaged the Garci tapes of the 2004 elections. More than a billion pesos were misspent on that. And now it has to explain the ZTE scam that presaged the Bedol affair of the 2007 balloting. About $70 million (P3.5 billion) reportedly was illegally raised for the campaign this time around.
Truly, the lesson of the Erap verdict is lost on officialdom.
