Woodkirk Stone
Read this in the digital edition of The Manila Times.
THANKS very much for the positive reaction to last week’s column (“Food and Beverage Policy”, TMT, November 5, 2021). It received almost 600% more likes than any of my previous columns and I’m so grateful that many of you found it worth reading. As this is submitted Thursday morning, I am not aware of what may have happened since then on who is running and for what.
Like the Christmas season, which in the Philippines begins in August or September and sometimes ends in mid-January (I was rocked to Christmas carols by singers in Santa Claus outfits at the Manila airport in my return at that point, then I heard them inexplicably go on to sing my most hated song “Never Been to Me” in 2019), the Filipino elections start early and never really end. They go into overdrive for about six months. Why never ends? There is all the drama and pre-campaign positioning. Then the post-election, the endless counting, the electoral protests (“Always cheated, never defeated” should be our electoral motto) and then the courts take almost six years to decide or not even bother to decide on a protest in the event. hope that the losing candidate will run for another post in three years to make a “questionable” decision as the protest is considered abandoned.
So, with no real issues and any personality politics, it is time for the essence of every campaign – the fight against corruption. Remember “corrupt kung walang, walang mahirap.” Well, we’re still poor and still have corruption; otherwise why would it still be a slogan and a rallying cry? What is the program to implement this endless campaign slogan? Apart from slogans and empty slogans, it is – “Trust me, I am a good and sincere person.”
If anyone has anything else to add to the substance of this endless, barely varied anti-corruption slogan, let me know. In each election, I saw nothing other than this empty and futile platitude. Oh, there are cutesy variations and extensions to this narrative that have about as much substance and nutrition as the thinners in food products. Like being photographed praying fervently as dozens of photographers scramble to snap a photo of you in thoughtful and intense prayer or be blessed by the clergy. Another is that they are so straightforward that they quietly wait for a means of public transport to return home (although they campaign in private jets) and watch NBA games on the court, thanks to which an anti-corruption supporter escapes me. Or eating such simple food with their hands as I regularly see them eating top quality steak which costs more than some people’s pay.
Now that I have finished talking about our showbiz and non-substance policy when it comes to anti-corruption, here are some concrete suggestions that may lead to the candidate being considered serious when it comes to anti-corruption. This does not include changing the law or increasing penalties. Who cares about the penalties if there is no major prosecution or execution?
Concrete suggestions
Let me list four of them – regular payment of wages, reasonable compensation, professional public service and the pursuit of its allies.
My brother worked in government for a while in the 1970s, and I was surprised to learn that salaries are not paid regularly. There are times when it’s delayed, and then there’s a catch-up. A few years ago my daughter also did a short stint in government and in less than a year she was there, guess what? Salaries are still not paid consistently on payday. No change after almost 50 years. Is our budgeting and payroll system so inept from at least Marcos to Duterte that it is common ground that modest salaries cannot even be paid with regularity? In the scheme of payments and obligations, the national government can not even do that? We borrow enough money and so on. For those regular payments, they can’t even take it into account? Are wages like a system of limits for public buses? What does this do for budgeting and living expenses of civil servants? Many have to resort to wage loans, which are not cheap and further deplete their already meager wages. So one wonders why so many are corrupt? So, with that, why would a competent person who has alternatives stay in government service? If the national government for the past 50 years at least cannot even pay salaries regularly, you must be wondering how this affects other services and programs.
Then there is the level of wages. To, I guess, avoid the high salaries of some senior officials, the Cory administration passed the Standard Salary Act. For me, this has only destroyed any semblance of a sustainable and professional civil service common to other Asian countries like Thailand and Malaysia. Indeed, it standardized and institutionalized below-market wages for frontline workers and most public servants. From what I understand, there are workarounds for high level officers if needed. Thus, the effect of this papal law was the opposite. Did not prevent good salaries from top executives, but institutionalized below market salaries for almost all other members of government. It could be argued that Singapore is paying too much for its officials and elected officials. The private sector even struggles to convince high quality people to join them as they prefer to be in government instead. But no one claims they are corrupt. In general, the United States sets federal wages at a modest discount from equivalent private sector wages, except at the highest levels where it is considerably lower. Yet, coupled with job security, it is enough to attract competent and uncorrupted staff.
Pursue the supporters
I suspect this low wage payment and random payment schedules suit the goals of those in charge. What better way to ensure loyalty and cooperation with what they want than to withhold what is appropriate. In addition, having the unofficial means of granting off-book income and favors helps ensure unassailable loyalty. Deal with those two and I’ll start taking your anti-corruption stance seriously.
This will allow us to once again have a professional public service. In many countries, this is what allows government to operate with a decent level of competence, consistency and efficiency. Thailand regularly experiences coups, but its government continues to function. Why? Partly a higher level of civil service than here. All successful countries have this. A government that works and provides services regardless of what happens among elected politicians.
Finally, pursue your supporters. If you’re just suing officials from the previous administration or your opponents, that doesn’t impress me. It may be justified or a vendetta, but it will not lead to less corruption in your administration. Aquino and de Lima indicted Senators Enrile, Estrada and Revilla and detained them without bail. Guess what ultimately happened to them and to De Lima? Was it anti-corruption or what is going on around you? Discuss whatever you want, but when Lee Kuan Yew sued an incumbent president and sitting minister (who naturally belonged to his party) and they were found guilty and went to jail, the fight against corruption took off. been taken seriously. Whenever someone in a country asks me about the fight against corruption, I say that I will not believe it until the senior officials in place are prosecuted and convicted.