‘Garapalan’ explained

‘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.