Polibiz
Corruption and our nation
(NOTE: I would like to yield this space to the speech delivered by Ombudsman Ma. Merceditas N. Gutierrez during the inauguration of the Ombudsman Visayas Regional Office recently due to its relevance and timeliness.)
To all the barangay officials here present, fellow workers in government, ladies and gentlemen..
Ako'y naniniwala na ang mga namumuno sa mga barangay at ibang opisyales ng mga lokal na pamahalaan ay may mahalagang katungkulan sa kaayusan ng buhay ng mga komunidad na ating ginagalawan. Dahil dito ako'y lubos na nagagalak na kayo'y aking makapanayam sa umagang ito
Alam ba ninyo na sa inyong mga balikat -- kayong mga pinuno ng pinakasaligang pangkat ng lipunan - nakasalalay ang kapakanan ng ating bayan? Ano man ang kilos ninyo't gawa bilang opisyal ng barangay ay may kaukulang "impact" sa pangkalahatang kagalingan ng ating mga kabababayan. tinatanghal kayo ng mga tao bilang halimbawa kung paano magsilbi't magmahal sa sambayanan.
Ang pagdalo ninyo dito sa seminar ay nagpapatunay na nasa inyong isip at diwa ang pagpapataas ng antas ng inyong kaalaman at pagkaunawa sa tamang pagtataguyod ng kagalingang panlipunan.
The spread of corruption is a serious concern for many countries today. Especially for third world countries that have become so, partly because of corruption. Corruption is so pervasive, it cuts across all sectors of society. But it is wrong to say that corruption exists only in the government.There is corruption as well in the private sector. In fact corrupt government officials and bureaucrats often start off as idealistic men & women. But suppliers of goods and services soon spoil them with gifts and percentage cuts. And before anyone notices, the new faces in government are as corrupt as their predecessors.
Corruption causes our collective lives to deteriorate. Because of it, our roads need constant expensive repair, tying up scarce funds that could otherwise be used to build some more roads. Meanwhile these badly-constructed roads pose ever-present hazards to our vehicles that run over deep potholes now and then. Because of corruption, watersheds are covered or paved over and become pretty golf courses or parts of subdivision projects. But as a consequence, regular flooding becomes the hellish lot of some communities a few kilometers away.
Because of corruption, buildings become veritable firetraps, daily threatening the lives of innocent people because of the absence of emergency escape routes. Because of corruption, there is not enough money to buy equipment for our policemen and barangay tanods. Classrooms, books and good teachers for our public school children are always in short supply. Health, sanitation and water services, especially for poor people who need them most, cannot be adequately provided for. Why? not because of lack of funds, but because a good deal of those funds get into the private pockets of corrupt people.
Corruption most of all erodes the moral fiber of our people, and destroys the trust that binds us to one another, and we to the state. When corruption prevents our government and well-meaning officials from promoting the common good, and life becomes hard for everyone - not just for the poor but even for the rich - ordinary citizens lose their faith in duly constituted authorities who in their eyes are inutile. People also become predatory to one another, so that eventually common decency and all respect for the rule of law and private rights disappear.
Many of us are not aware of the tremendous cost of corruption. Studies indicate that in the last 20 years, our country has lost a whopping P1.2 trillion to graft. This is roughly equivalent to USD 48 billion. The department of budget and management estimates that P21 billion was lost to graft in the procurement of locally funded public projects alone.
Just think if this last amount was spent properly. P21 billion could have purchased 520 million textbooks for our public school children. It could have financed the construction of 63,000 new classrooms, or about 1,500 kilometers of farm-to-market roads. In the process, how many jobs could it have generated for our people? How much food could it have placed on the tables of our families? how much more income could it have garnered for breadwinners?
And if we applied the same amount instead to our foreign debt, such debt would not only have been wiped out totally, it would have also still left us with some surplus to boot! This is how big an amount we have been losing all these years to corruption, an amount that could have served our collective interests. Kanya hindi tayo maka-angat sa buhay ay dahil dito sa corruption sa ating bansa. For this reason, all of us, whether we are in or out of government, have a duty to unite as one in fighting this big scourge in our societal life.
In fighting corruption we must begin in the most basic units of government, and that is the barangay where you are the acknowledged leaders. In this connection, I am glad to inform you that our office has developed programs and strategies that move towards institutional or systems reform and the promotion of graft-intolerant values.
We have, among others, helped form and now have accredited Corruption Prevention Units (CPUs) and Junior Graftwatch Units (JGUs), composed of civil society members and even students from various schools. These are purely volunteer organizations and they are meant to report incidences of corruption and government ineptitude in their localities. If you encounter any of them, do treat them as allies with the common purpose of achieving a clean and effective government.
In the national level, we have strengthened our system of resident ombudsmen that are assigned to different government agencies and government-owned-and-controlled corporations. Their task is to monitor the proper and honest performance of public functions by said government agencies. They also facilitate the redress of wrongs suffered by ordinary citizens in the hands of inept government functionaries.
Moreover, in an effort to bring the Office of the Ombudsman closer to the people, we have began expanding our regional presence. We have recently opened our new regional office in Calamba city (for Luzon), Our new Cagayan de Oro office (for Mindanao) and today we are formally opening our Iloilo City office (for the Visayas).
But that is not all. Only a couple of months back, we committed ourselves to shepherd a convergence process that would lead to the formation of a comprehensive National Anti-corruption Program of Action (NACPA). This would involve many sectors, as well as LGUs in your barangays, in a focused effort to fight head-on the scourge of corruption.
To show how effective citizen cooperation is in the fight against corruption, very recently we acted on reports from the public at large concerning abuses in official privilege. For starters we launched "operation red plate", a national campaign to curb the illegal use of government vehicles. As a result of this campaign, the LTO promptly issued new directives that called for a stricter implementation of rules concerning the use of government vehicles.
The savings of government from gasoline alone can be used to pay higher salaries to our public school teachers, or buy better equipment for our law enforcers, or fund the health, sanitation and water needs of our barangays.
I would like, however, to stress a point. It is not enough that we go get busy in purely structural or institutional changes alone. Prime and foremost, we as individuals must change. For any system is only as good as the people who operate it.
We must humbly accept that we have over the years developed traits and attitudes that abet graft. These include the habit of "kanya-kanya", distorted versions of "pakikisama", the "kumpare" and the "ano-ang-akin dyan" systems. For this reason, we must also admit that we ourselves, in one way or another, have contributed to the rise of corruption in our country. This must change by consigning these old habits to the past so that personal reform can start. To start a new life is always difficult. But as the fruits of resolve begin to trickle in, we will be glad we took the first step at all.
Kayo po na nasa barangay, araw-araw nakakasalimuha ninyo ang maraming ordinaryong Pilipino. Dahil kayo ang pinagdadalhan ng kanilang mga iba't-ibang daing at kayo rin ang pinupuntahan para sa mga sari-saring tulong at pakikipag-damayan na kanilang kailangan.
Ang magandang halimbawang galing sa inyo sa dako ng matapat at marangal na serbisyo sa sambayanan ay siguradong hindi mawawala sa diwa't puso ng mga taong bayan. At dahil dito, sila rin ay maaring mahikayat ninyo tungo na rin sa pagbabagong buhay, sa isang maayos, malinis at marangal na pamumuhay.
Tandaan po ninyo: pag dumami ang mga taong ganyan, iyon na ang mataginting na araw ng ating pag-unlad sa tulong ng maykapal.
Marami pong salamat at magandang umaga sa inyong lahat.