After the outrage

They come in threes. Indonesia. Nepal. Are we next?

Bangladesh happened some months ago so maybe we are safe. But things like these are like wildfire. Remember the Arab Spring?

One thing is clear. We are either very patient and peaceful. Or extremely stupid or catatonic not to react as we should when trillions of pesos are being stolen from us by our officials.

No one wants blood on the streets. But we have to do more than create memes on social media. Seeing that table in the office of the Bulacan district engineer groaning with bundles of thousand-peso-bills can raise our blood pressure to unhealthy levels. That’s our money we paid in taxes.

The Congressional hearings aren’t doing us any favors. We can sense key witnesses and even interrogators lying as if it were second nature to them. A pox on all their houses!

Worse, the Discayas would taint the impeccable reputation of a good public servant like Roman Romulo, their political rival, with no proof. Romulo’s simple lifestyle speaks eloquently of his honesty.

It is good to see some of our society’s movers and shakers raising their voices to protest ghost flood control projects. But even here, one senses some amount of hypocrisy. Many in the private business sector have benefitted from the rotten system.

The Church reaction was a little late and lukewarm. The Discaya guy was raised by priests in a convent in Pasig. They fed him food for the body but apparently nothing for the soul. Whoever is the bishop of Pasig had been eerily silent, up to now. Maybe the Discayas are big church contributors.

Cardinal Ambo David, the bishop of Kalookan was the most vocal in speaking out. But still short of what the late Cardinal Sin did back in 1986. This widespread failure of public morality is obviously also a failure of all the Christian churches in Asia’s only Christian country in teaching their flock.

Some 30 business groups have joined forces to declare outrage and disappointment for the “shameful, unabated, continuing and excessive acts of graft and corruption – a crime against our people, especially those who continue to live in dire poverty.”

Their declaration promised to do a number of things that sound good on a press release but lacking a concrete action plan.

These are some things they can do:

A commitment to blacklist the notorious contractors who conspired with politicians and officials to never do business with these people. That’s a difficult promise to keep. By next campaign season, expect the biggies of our business sector contributing to election buying kitty of these politicians again.

Their plan to sign an Integrity Pledge, where the leaders and the company they represent will commit not to bribe any politician or government official in exchange for project approvals or favors is interesting but in reality, meaningless.

The call on the financial sector, particularly the banks and the Anti-Money Laundering Council to work in bringing out the money launderers and their unexplained wealth within legal and regulatory boundaries is another good PR line.

But unless the BSP orders the financial institutions to clean up their relationships with contractors and bureaucrats involved in these ghost projects, nothing good will happen.

The hearings revealed that bank staff even give these plunderers special treatment when they withdraw all that cash.

Indeed, the BSP must forthwith, order banks to limit the amounts of allowable cash withdrawals. Anything beyond one million pesos should be considered suspicious, specially in today’s G-cash economy.

Any cash transaction above a million pesos should automatically be tagged for anti-money laundering. Big cash movements should have paper or digital trails.

Notice that none of the big contractors are involved in the corrupt DPWH transactions? It is a good idea for DMCI, EEI, Datem, Ayala’s MDC, etc to join DPWH biddings if only to try to keep everyone honest. Ramon Ang has been doing this in PPP projects because he said, SMC’s presence makes other conglomerates think twice about bidding low.

The big guys in business from the Ayalas to the Aboitizes, the Sy-blings and others should do more of the public works projects like school buildings and publicize their costs as part of their CSR projects.

Do what Ramon Ang did on flooding. He analyzed the problem and invested in the solution. He bought dredging equipment and has spent about P3 billion cleaning rivers. He didn’t wait for government action beyond getting permission to dredge.

Dredging the Tullahan river ended the regular rainy season flooding of the SMC beer plant in Polo, Valenzuela. He recovered some of his dredging cost because there is no more downtime in production due to flood.

Indeed, it is better for the nation if the Makati Business and MAP types did as much of the essential projects that the government must do. After all, those can be considered business expenses. They can also see how the money they would have paid in taxes is actually spent.

Those who are in tech stuff should produce computer programs that the government can use to enhance transparency. I don’t know if Bam Aquino’s proposal to use blockchain for the NEP is feasible. Those with the knowhow should help design something that would work.

A satellite-based system that our agriculture sector can use should be devised to enable anyone to check on the progress of DPWH projects in real time. Ben Diokno, as DBM Secretary, promised such a system for Build Build Build. But it went Bust Bust Bust.

Such a satellite-based system will also allow DBM to monitor projects before funds are authorized for release and also check on progress thereafter.

We must use the outrage generated by this horrible scandal to make things better. If the manicured elite is not inclined to riot in the streets, they must do alternative penance for tolerating and participating in this public crime.

Enough posturing for our business organizations and let us see them mean what their position papers preach.

Boo Chanco’s email is [email protected]. Follow him on X @boochanco