‘Garapalan’ explained
Editorial

‘With less and less money to steal, the
looters, with their insatiable greed, have become more and more rapacious.’
THE thieves in the Arroyo administration came into the scene
late. The world has undergone a sea change since the time of the notorious
looters of their nation’s wealth like our own Ferdinand Marcos. Corruption is no
longer tolerated by bilateral and multilateral agencies that provide assistance,
whether in the form of grants and loans. Yet it is probably in recognition of
the fact that it is much harder to steal now that the thieves are frantically
seeking to further line their pockets while the opportunity, however tight,
lasts.
Current attention is focused on the World Bank’s findings of
collusion in the bidding for WB-funded projects. Contractors apparently have to
submit over-priced bids not so much to improve their bottom line but rather to
safeguard it. They have to pay off corrupt officials and their padrino in the
Palace to the tune of up to 30 percent of the value of the contract. To make a
profit, if not to break even, they have to resort to over-pricing and/or turn in
sub-standard work to cut cost.
Since the early early part of this decade, however, the World
Bank has cracked down on corruption in recognition of the fact that official
thievery victimizes the people most. People remain mired in poverty.
Opportunities for development are blocked off. Corruption has become the biggest
block the World Bank’s avowed mission of eliminating poverty and laying the
ground for sustained development.
The same anti-corruption zeal also characterizes the United
States’ Millennium Fund launched by President George Bush in 2004. Aid is seen
as most effective when it reinforces good governance, economic freedom and
investments in people.
Five years after the launch of the Millennium Fund, the
Philippines has yet to gain access to this development assistance window because
of corruption. Two years ago, the Philippines secured threshold status and got
small amounts to further improve transparency and accountability. This year, the
Philippines hoped to gain compact status and gain access to funds for actual
development projects. The hope was dashed with the 2009 assessment that the
Philippines was exactly in the middle in the scale of corruption among its peer
countries. No better or no worse than the average which, it so happens under the
standards of the Millennium Challenge Corp., the administrator of the fund, is
not good enough.
The effect is there is less and less money to steal. The looters, with their
insatiable greed, have thus become more and more rapacious. That’s the long and
short of why corruption is more "garapal" now than it used to be. |