Graft busting begins With Christ

CEBU, Philippines - Except when graft-busting is done with a Christ-centered heart, the battle against corruption is defeated. When God’s fear and love are removed, the heart can be cruel. So cruel that it can leave a people with a heritage of corruption. So cruel that a nation mired in corruption beckons its own destruction. So cruel that at least two men chose a tragic death of putting a bullet in their heads rather than face the shame of corruption.

Because corruption begins in the heart, corruption cannot be won outside of God’s agenda.  Taking soul winning in overarched dimensions, saturation teams of Bible Baptist Church Katipunan are now spreading the Gospel alongside fighting spiritual wickedness in high places. The accreditation of soul winning saturation teams as graftwatch units under the auspices of the Office of the Ombudsman for Regions VI, VII and VIII is contained in a memorandum of agreement between the Office of the Ombudsman and the Police Values Formation Council. Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Pelagio S. Apostol and Rev. Julius Caesar N. Ramos, national president of the Philippine National Police Values Formation Council (Community Transformation) inked the collaboration on February 9, 2011. The agreement makes soul winners for Christ become graft busters for Christ in a frontier that even oversight agencies in government have been hesitant to tread.

In his July 26 state of the nation address, President Noynoy Aquino gave an impressive blueprint of fighting corruption. There is one critical flaw the President left out God in the scheme of things. Like his predecessors, efforts at fighting corruption can fail or are shortlived because governments don’t recognize that corruption does not begin when the blue ribbon committee holds sessions or when the truth commission is formed. It does not begin when those caught in corruption are thrust in shameful and glaring exposes. Corruption begins in the heart. Disastrous and tragic consequences of corruption are borne out of a corrupt heart.

Buried Alive In Corruption.

Corruption is not a 21st century social malady. During the time of Adam and Eve, God sent a flood to rid the Earth of corruption. Genesis 6:9 bears record that “God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of the heart was only evil continually.” In verse 12, “God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt” and that the earth was filled with violence. In his wrath, God made it rain for 150 days bringing flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh. Certainly, it is a fearful thing for a nation to be buried in corruption .A nation buried in corruption buries itself alive.

Because corruption in the Philippines is systemic, Filipinos no longer being buried alive in the tragedy of corruption. Corruption has become so systemic that neither shame, guilt or fear can deter Filipinos from being corrupt. In the late 1980s, the Philippines made it to the Guinness Book of World Records as a kleptocracy or rule of thieves under the Marcos regime. In 1999, then Ombudsman Aniano Desierto claimed that the government loses P100 million daily or P36.5 billion annually to corruption.  In 2007, the Philippines ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in Asia. These days, corruption is no respecter of persons whether gusot-mayaman looking barong, whether in uniform, in cassocks, in robes, in business suits, in hard hats, in gowns, in teacher’s uniforms, corruption has become an invasive social disease that it is like stage 4 cancer in this country. The Philippines dwarfs even the more well known former kleptocrats like Duvalier (‘papa Doc’) of Haiti, Mobutu of Zaïre, Bokassa of the Central African Republic, and Suharto of Indonesia. Though these leaders have the notoriety for being corrupt, but their countries never made it to the Guinness Book of World record as a rule of thieves.

What has made corruption a lifestyle  is that governance in this country forms values where familiarity with sin becomes acceptable culture. Research shows that Philippine culture permits graft that neither shame nor guilt can stop. Shame culture means saving face, preserving family honor and importance of family name and reputation. Guilt culture is concerned with truth and justice where sense of guilt and conscience prevent wrongdoing.

Throughout the country’s history, agencies have been inseparably interwoven in government such that employees and officials in all levels, along with businessmen involved in government dealings, are not constrained by guilt or conscience. When caught, malefactors merely justify themselves and brazenly seek the sympathy of others to justify graft.

Only Route Out.

Political corruption destroys. It is the downfall of the Filipino people. In a 2000 study, the World Bank and the Philippine Center for Transnational Crimes concluded that the single most potent weapon to combat corruption is not adding more laws, increasing penalties or creating more oversight agencies. The single most potent weapon is values formation. Former president Fidel Ramos issued executive order 319 in 1996 instituting moral recovery and values formation programs in government offices. More than 15 years later, corruption has not abated and spiritual wickedness permeates in high and low places far worse than before, in daytime and night time, and even in places that are supposed to be pillars of faith.

For more than five years, soul winning saturation teams of Bible Baptist Church Katipunan have been preaching the Gospel in schools and some government offices. In this collaborative endeavor with the Office of the Ombudsman, the saturation teams as graft busters for Christ are to assist the Ombudsman in lifestyle checks on government personnel while ensuring that the procurement of goods by government offices and personnel is efficient, transparent and lawful. They are conduits of the Ombudsman at ensuring that local government disbursements are waste-free and lawful and government revenue collection is transparent and proper.

In this route out of corruption, saturation teams are empowered to recommend to the Ombudsman how government offices can improve services in the issuance of permits, licenses and all manner of clearances. Such is the breadth of sensitivity and empowerment of saturation teams that the Ombudsman can call upon them in filing cases against erring government personnel and their cohorts. Thing is, these saturation teams need to be heard, welcomed in offices and schools and given every opportunity to share the Gospel and pierce and stir up the hearts of listeners to moral recovery.

Mired in corruption, the Philippines waits for a 150-day flood to bury it alive or a day-long rain of fire and brimstone to burn it alive. Just like his predecessors, President Noynoy’s anti-wang wang, anti-graft roadmap for a clean government won’t get anywhere unless there is a change of heart among government officials including himself. It takes an hour or so for the saturation teams and graft busters for Christ to preach the message of salvation, share God’s Word and direct Christ-centered lives. This could be the only route out of corruption and yes stopping the tragedy of inundation. (FREEMAN)