They arrive in threes. Indonesia. Nepal. Are we subsequent?
Bangladesh occurred some months in the past so possibly we’re secure. However issues like these are like wildfire. Bear in mind the Arab Spring?
One factor is obvious. We’re both very affected person and peaceable. Or extraordinarily silly or catatonic to not react as we should always when trillions of pesos are being stolen from us by our officers.
Nobody needs blood on the streets. However we now have to do greater than create memes on social media. Seeing that desk within the workplace of the Bulacan district engineer groaning with bundles of thousand-peso-bills can increase our blood strain to unhealthy ranges. That’s our cash we paid in taxes.
The Congressional hearings aren’t doing us any favors. We are able to sense key witnesses and even interrogators mendacity as if it had been second nature to them. A pox on all their homes!
Worse, the Discayas would taint the impeccable popularity of public servant like Roman Romulo, their political rival, with no proof. Romulo’s easy way of life speaks eloquently of his honesty.
It’s good to see a few of our society’s movers and shakers elevating their voices to protest ghost flood management initiatives. However even right here, one senses some quantity of hypocrisy. Many within the personal enterprise sector have benefitted from the rotten system.
The Church response was a little bit late and lukewarm. The Discaya man was raised by monks in a convent in Pasig. They fed him meals for the physique however apparently nothing for the soul. Whoever is the bishop of Pasig had been eerily silent, thus far. Perhaps the Discayas are massive church contributors.
Cardinal Ambo David, the bishop of Kalookan was probably the most vocal in talking out. However nonetheless in need of what the late Cardinal Sin did again in 1986. This widespread failure of public morality is clearly additionally a failure of all of the Christian church buildings in Asia’s solely Christian nation in educating their flock.
Some 30 enterprise teams have joined forces to declare outrage and disappointment for the “shameful, unabated, persevering with and extreme acts of graft and corruption – against the law in opposition to our individuals, particularly those that proceed to reside in dire poverty.”
Their declaration promised to do plenty of issues that sound good on a press launch however missing a concrete motion plan.
These are some issues they’ll do:
A dedication to blacklist the infamous contractors who conspired with politicians and officers to by no means do enterprise with these individuals. That’s a tough promise to maintain. By subsequent marketing campaign season, count on the biggies of our enterprise sector contributing to election shopping for kitty of those politicians once more.
Their plan to signal an Integrity Pledge, the place the leaders and the corporate they symbolize will commit to not bribe any politician or authorities official in trade for venture approvals or favors is fascinating however in actuality, meaningless.
The decision on the monetary sector, significantly the banks and the Anti-Cash Laundering Council to work in bringing out the cash launderers and their unexplained wealth inside authorized and regulatory boundaries is one other good PR line.
However except the BSP orders the monetary establishments to scrub up their relationships with contractors and bureaucrats concerned in these ghost initiatives, nothing good will occur.
The hearings revealed that financial institution workers even give these plunderers particular therapy after they withdraw all that money.
Certainly, the BSP should forthwith, order banks to restrict the quantities of allowable money withdrawals. Something past a million pesos must be thought of suspicious, specifically in right now’s G-cash financial system.
Any money transaction above 1,000,000 pesos ought to routinely be tagged for anti-money laundering. Large money actions ought to have paper or digital trails.
Discover that not one of the massive contractors are concerned within the corrupt DPWH transactions? It’s a good suggestion for DMCI, EEI, Datem, Ayala’s MDC, and so forth to hitch DPWH biddings if solely to attempt to hold everybody trustworthy. Ramon Ang has been doing this in PPP initiatives as a result of he stated, SMC’s presence makes different conglomerates assume twice about bidding low.
The large guys in enterprise from the Ayalas to the Aboitizes, the Sy-blings and others ought to do extra of the general public works initiatives like college buildings and publicize their prices as a part of their CSR initiatives.
Do what Ramon Ang did on flooding. He analyzed the issue and invested within the answer. He purchased dredging tools and has spent about P3 billion cleansing rivers. He didn’t wait for presidency motion past getting permission to dredge.
Dredging the Tullahan river ended the common wet season flooding of the SMC beer plant in Polo, Valenzuela. He recovered a few of his dredging value as a result of there is no such thing as a extra downtime in manufacturing attributable to flood.
Certainly, it’s higher for the nation if the Makati Enterprise and MAP varieties did as a lot of the important initiatives that the federal government should do. In any case, these could be thought of enterprise bills. They will additionally see how the cash they’d have paid in taxes is definitely spent.
Those that are in tech stuff ought to produce pc applications that the federal government can use to reinforce transparency. I don’t know if Bam Aquino’s proposal to make use of blockchain for the NEP is possible. These with the knowhow ought to assist design one thing that will work.
A satellite-based system that our agriculture sector can use must be devised to allow anybody to test on the progress of DPWH initiatives in actual time. Ben Diokno, as DBM Secretary, promised such a system for Construct Construct Construct. Nevertheless it went Bust Bust Bust.
Such a satellite-based system can even permit DBM to observe initiatives earlier than funds are licensed for launch and likewise test on progress thereafter.
We should use the outrage generated by this horrible scandal to make issues higher. If the manicured elite is just not inclined to riot within the streets, they need to do various penance for tolerating and collaborating on this public crime.
Sufficient posturing for our enterprise organizations and allow us to see them imply what their place papers preach.
Boo Chanco’s e-mail is [email protected]. Comply with him on X @boochanco
