WHY ARE “MOST” POLITICIANS CORRUPT?
By: Robert G. Valerio
THE irrepressible Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago came out with the
reason for the mad rush for Senate seats, making them throw away millions, or
rather hundreds of millions of pesos, just to be elected. People have always
wondered: How in the world can anybody spend hundreds of millions of pesos for
a position that yields only a monthly salary of P55,000.00.
Indeed, there must be something about a Senate seat or for that matter,
Congressman/woman, or even a Provincial Governor, City Mayor or that of a City
or Municipal Councilor! Is it really just
public service, or is there something more?
***
Consider this: The spending limit for a senatorial candidate is P250
million, or P5 per registered voter. And there are more than 50 million
registered voters.
Read this: Apart from the monthly P55,000 salary for a senator, there is
a fixed monthly budget of P2.4 million for office and staff expenses, and an
additional P760,000 in foreign travel and additional perks.
Listen to this: Some senators hardly travel abroad. When they do, they
do not only use the travel budget. They ask for more, even pocket money. And
they bring their spouses and children, secretaries and girlfriends, doctors or
even yayas.
And how’s this? Each senator gets P793,000 a month for staff salaries
and another P998,000 for office expenses such as rentals, utilities, supplies
and domestic travel.
If a senator is a Committee Chairman, he or she gets a similar budget of
what she gets as a regular senator. And there is no rule requiring senators to
return the money that has not been used. This means they have the option of
pocketing the excess cash.
Do we wonder then why
people are just so eager to be senators? It beats winning a casino jackpot or
winning a lottery—it’s all tax-free.
***
Now read this and weep: Above all the things I just mentioned, a senator
is given P200 million PDAF out of the P1.71 billion Senate budget under the
General Appropriations Act. Don’t kid yourself, there is still PDAF Funds –
only it is called a different name now….
Sen. Santiago speaks of 10 percent kickback from public works contractor
to be given awards for infrastructure and from other awarded contracts for
livelihood projects, social services, like health and education. Miriam is
being conservative. The usual kickback given goes as high as 30 to 40 percent
for contracts pinpointed by members of Congress.
Do you understand now why everybody wants to be a lawmaker? And why
candidates will do everything to woo the votes of people – dance, sing, do
comedies (or “eat fire!”) on the stage during campaign, including spending
money as though it were going out of style, just to get elected?
Doleouts to favored people are also unaudited. They are running for
public service because their hearts bleed for the poor and needy? Aw, come on,
don’t give me that BS.
They run because there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, all at
the expense of the Filipino people.
***
We come to the issue of politicians’ tendency to be corrupt. Now I talk
of those running for local positions, like councilors, mayors, governors and
congressmen.
Visit these politicians early in the morning, and you see hundreds of
people lining up, waiting for the official to wake up so that they can ask him
for doleouts. Money with which to travel to Manila, to treat a sick son or
wife, to send a son or daughter to school, to cover burial expenses, to furnish
the basketball team with uniforms, and so on.
Santa Banana, the needs of the people are endless. They all expect a
congressman, governor or mayor to solve all their problems.
And where do you think these politicians will get all the money asked
from them? From overpriced government contracts, from kickbacks, from the
P70-million pork barrel of members of Congress, from overpriced school supplies
that a congressman or a governor awards for public school and from payrolls of
ghost employees. And from so many other scams nationwide.
There’s a Metro Manila mayor, for instance, who has hundreds, if not
thousands in his “15-30” payroll, who collect them only on the 15th and 30th of
every month, but whose mission is for each of them to take care of every 50
families in their barangays. Neat, huh? No wonder he’s always re-elected.
I say that if politicians become corrupt, blame partly the people who
expect them to dole out patronage to them. It’s a symbiotic thing—the people
seeking doleouts and the politicians expecting their support when election time
comes. And that comes every three years.
That’s why I say that we expect the kind of public officials we
elect—public officials who are not only hypocrites who cry out to high heavens
that they only want to serve, but are in fact corrupt.
…..
Now, that the PDAF scam/scandal has been thrown in the open – we read,
hear, watch these on TVs, monitor in the facebook, twitter, internet sites, You
tube – but these are all in the national level! Nevertheless, every Filipino did
react, stood up and be counted!
What about in the local scene? Do we know the stories behind the local
officials? How much is the budget allocation for City or Municipal Councilors?
How much is for research? Do they really conduct research? If so, where are the
“reports”? Are Ordinances enacted backed-up with data, figures, statistics, and
facts about the matter being deliberated in the legislative body? I have seen a
Legislative Body passed FOUR (4) ORDINANCES ALL IN ONE DAY SESSION – from First
Reading to Final Approval??? Only in the Philippines…..
How much is the MOOE? On a per Councilor basis? How much traveling is
being done in one year? What are the purposes of these travels? How much is the
gasoline budget allocation per official?
How much is the budget allocation for the City Mayor? How much is the
“Intelligence Funds”? How much is the Discretionary Fund of these Officials? The
Assistant Regional or the Regional Director of a National Department Agency has
Discretionary Funds to use. What more for these local officials of LGUs being an
autonomous under the LGC! Let‘s not be naïve about these matters? I know, I
used to be a Director myself….
Do the LGUs Officials
publish these costs to the Filipino People in this part of the country? Why are
they not publishing these Expenses at the end of the year? If they really are
transparent, if they really want to be transparent and that they have nothing
to hide, then they should! Dapat Lang…..
That is the anatomy of un-transparency in governance, which is the start
of CORRUPTION in the Philippines.
--------------------------------
Corruption in the Philippines is very serious. Be
sensitive! Be bothered! Be involved in the eradication of graft and corruption
in all aspects, even in the private sector --- petty, small or large scale!
---------------------------------
Ehemplo is a call of people dedicated to live a life of
honor, integrity and good examples. Ehemplo is based on espousing Ehem -- the urgent call for cultural
reform against corruption.
Ehem aims at bringing people to a renewed
sensitivity to the evil of corruption and its prevalence in ordinary life. It
seeks ultimately to make them more intensely aware of their own vulnerability
to corruption, their own uncritiqued, often unwitting practice of corruption in
daily life.
Ehem hopes to bring people, in the end, to a
commitment to live the way of Ehemplo --- critical of corruption, intent on
integrity!
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