Why is the Philippines corrupt? this is answered by this equation Corruption = Rich opportunity or Economic rent + Discretion – Accountability which is Zero C stands for corruption (another meaning is “stealing the tax money of the Filipino people”), R for economic rent (another meaning is “what is in it for my pocket to make me rich?”, D for discretionary powers (another meaning is “power of politician to do whatever they want”), A for accountability (another meaning is “admitting responsibility of what they did wrong and accept to be punish justly by the law and by the Filipino people”). The more opportunities for economic rent (R) exist in the Philippines, the larger will be the corruption. And, the greater the discretionary (or given to make whatever decisions they want) powers (D) granted to elected “Public Servants”, the greater will be the corruption. However, the more elected “Public Servants” are held accountable (A) for their stealing of tax money of Filipinos, the less will be the corruption, and hence a minus sign in front of A. Fertile grounds for a corrupt system are permitted by Filipino sto exist: 1. Philippine Constitution contains: laws such as the 60/40 ownership, rules, regulations, and administrative orders to restrict business and economic activities and thereby creates huge opportunities for generating economic rent, and especially if these restrictive measures are complex and opaque and applied in a selective, secretive, inconsistent and non-transparent way; 2. President, Congressmen, Senators, Governors are granted large discretionary powers with respect to interpreting rules, are given a lot of freedom to decide on how rules are to be applied, to whom and in what manner they are to be applied, are vested with powers to amend, alter, and rescind the rules, and even to supplement the rules by invoking new restrictive administrative measures and procedures. 3. There are no effective mechanisms or systems and institutional arrangements in the Philippines to hold these elected “Public Servants” accountable for their actions. They pick the Judges in the Court Systems, then they buy them with bribes. Why can they buy them? It’s because these “public servants” intentionally left out the “Jury System” which in a Representative Democracy “Presidential” make the decision to judge them guilty or not, and not the lone or single Judge they can buy or bribe. Levels of Corruption Let’s understand at least two levels of corruptions: high level and low level corruptions which feed each other. 1. High Level Corruption refers to stealing tax money of Filipinos at the top and by leading politicians (President, Senators, Congressmen, Judges, Governors, Mayors, others) such as the PDAF (money to be used for hard projects like public works, roads, water & drainage, flood control systems, etc; soft projects like scholarships, medical expenses for the poor Filipinos), DAF expose scams. They will do anything to remain in office, for example, so they steal “Pork Barrel” to buy votes and bribe Judges to avoid being punished by the law or the Constitution. . 2. Low Level Corruption – such as the underhand or under the table payment to a clerk to expedite the issue of a driving license, business license, police clearance, NBI clearance, Medical clearance or certificate, etc. In the low level corruption the civil servants with very low salaries to meet the living expenses of their families are driven by necessity to engage in corrupt practices. Why is it that their salaries are kept low? It is because the money is being stolen by high level corruption. The Barangay captain and council members are all part of the problem of corruption. The large, medium, and small business owners get visited by corrupt BIR tax collectors, and other influence peddlers with envelopes for payments. These bribe payments lowers their profits so these businesses then pass the cost of the bribes on to the consumers – the poor Filipino people to recover the bribe payments. God Save the World, Inc.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 22:51:29 +0000
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