Third in corruption, first in cynicism

Editorial writers and columnists will surely go to town once again on the announcement by a group called Transparency International that the Philippines is the third "most corrupt" country in Asia and the 11th "most corrupt" in the world, drawn from a list of 113 corrupt countries worldwide.

The cynics and wags are already saying, "At least we excel at something!"

The GMA government ought to be embarrassed, of course. President Macapagal-Arroyo was swept into office by an EDSA II "People Power" revolution on the premise that the deposed Estrada government was too crooked to reform, and had lost the moral basis for rule. (As I’ve said before, it was a sort of mutiny or coup d’etat, really.)

What’s been the score since then? We continue to be awash in exposé and scandals. As the Transparency International report alleges, this country continues to lose P100 billion a year owing to corruption and graft, and lost about P2.6 trillion over the past ten years. The crooks in the bureaucracy and in government agencies, apparently, continue enjoying a field day.

The trouble is that the numerous anti-graft campaigns of the administration have been dismissed not only by the public but by the perpetrators themselves as mere publicity gimmicks. Sure, kotong-kotong cops are unmasked, as well as rotten policemen engaged in more deadly criminal activities like the three cops who were nabbed earlier this month for the kidnap for ransom (KFR) of two victims, but the public is still skeptical, especially since kidnappings, street crimes and akyat-bahay intrusions are still numerous, if not escalating in number.

White collar crime, in the meantime, remains both bothersome and horrendous.

There was a big to-do yesterday, for instance, about Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) personnel found extorting, with one suspect even suffering a heart attack. The impression remains that in addressing pervasive graft and corruption in the bureaucracy, a "double standard" still exists, and those caught are picked on a selective basis, with only the small fry getting fried.

The latest gimmicks being tried are the lifestyle checks, and the banning of cops and government officials from nightclubs, speakeasies, and hootchie-kootchie joints. If this could be properly and consistently enforced, hurrah! But time and again, our experience has been that such drives eventually peter out – sooner rather than later – and even those caught, like the guy found fondling a GRO (gee whiz, talk about en flagrante) and toting an unlicensed automatic, will get off the hook.

The Number One enemy, of course, is cynicism. Filipinos have lived with cynicism now for so long that it has become their most "reliable friend".

When a nation grows cynical and comes to believe that there’s no hope for reform, that when it either breaks apart and descends into anarchy and chaos, or seeks the comfort and relief of a dictatorship, so the dictator can chop all "evils" away with a headman’s axe. Or, worst of all, first the anarchy, then its false remedy: The takeover of a dictator, raised up high on a throne of bayonets by the military.

That’s how Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini – and, yes, first V.I. Lenin’s Bolsheviks, then Joseph Stalin took over. For Fascism and Communism, while they profess to hate and strive to destroy each other, spring from the same roots.

* * *

The eleven American Secret Service Intelligence officials and agents sent here to assess the security situation with regard to the October visit of United States President George W. Bush ended up both confused and disoriented. (Five of them left groggily for Washington, DC last night – where, incidentally, they may run into the terrible 166 kph winds of Hurricane Isabel.)

The trouble is that the US advance team has had to talk to too many Cabinet members and agencies, all competing with each other to spell out the "dangers" and "problems" facing the arrival of Mr. Bush. Instead of presenting the Americans with a coherent picture, these officials and agencies are vying with each other to impress the Americans with their personal, superior knowledge of the situation. The Secret Service men have had to deal with the DILG, the AFP, the ISAFP, the PNP, the PSG, et cetera, and have received conflicting briefings, all of which they will have to report when they get back to the US capital.

On October 1, an In-Place Secret Service contingent will arrive and stay here until POTUS (the President of the United States) gets here on October 18.

In the meantime, President GMA – may I suggest – ought to designate one of her most trusted officials, whether Cabinet or military, to exclusively deal with the Americans, not entrust their briefings to an entire menagerie of officials or generals.

Another problem is our obvious naïveté. Malacañang and the Department of National Defense (for the moment under one unified "boss") seems to expect President Bush to come here with a $1 billion aid package in hand. This is unrealistic. Our government did not do its homework and spadework in Washington, DC, where every budget and disbursement has to be approved by US Congress. This operation is called a congressional "lobby". Did we do that? Every other country does it.

Look at the $87 billion Bush asked from Congress last September 7, in a nationally televised speech, to finance operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. (This includes $66 billion for military and intelligence operations in both countries, while the remainder is for reconstruction costs.) The request hasn’t even gotten to first base in a Congress increasingly concerned about problems at home, with an election virtually around the corner in just a few months.

At the same time, have we done our part in the so-called "coalition of the willing" in Iraq? Thai troops and policemen are already in Iraq, helping out. And Washington, DC just sent $10 million to Bangkok as a "thank you" for its role in last month’s capture of the notorious Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist Hambali, one of Southeast Asia’s Most Wanted, and the suspected operations chief of the JI – the group which did those Balinese bombings last October 10 that killed 202, among them 80 Australians.

Now, GMA’s going to Mindanao on Monday to help look for the "escaped" JI terrorist Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi. Can GMA succeed where the PNP and the AFP have failed? True, she’s our equivalent of Wonder Woman and Darna combined at times, but al-Ghozi is a more slippery proposition. I’m still scratching my head over how he got away. Okay, so that’s a cynical quip.

* * *

AFP Chief of Staff General Narciso L. Abaya rang me up yesterday to say it isn’t true that he had told President GMA in October 2001 that, if given the chance, would work for "her re-election". He was aghast that some West Pointers had leaked such a tale to me. "I would never stoop to such cheap politicking," Narcing declared, "whether to secure promotion or advance myself." He said he was a professional soldier, loyal to the Constitution and to the Commander-in-Chief, and would do his job as such, never engaging in "politics".

As for his wife, Susan, being in the Presidential Management Staff (PMS), General Abaya said that she had been in the PMS since 1989, or long before President GMA’s term, but had left the PMS to work with the Anti-Poverty Commission under Chairman Ding Velasco. I hasten to clarify these matters, based on my conversation with the general.

We went on to discuss other topics, and I offered to give some lectures on "tradecraft" to our military intelligence operatives, like the ISAFP – since their agents have been clumsily tailing me for the past few weeks. (Abaya asserted he had never given the ISAFP such an order, or placed this writer or any media person under surveillance, but he can’t speak, of course, for other generals, like somebody we know.)

I made the same offer a week ago to Presidential Chief of Staff Rigoberto "Bobbi" Tiglao, but he just grinned and replied that I must be kidding. I’m not kidding, because I was kept under check and surveillance for years during the Marcos martial law hegemony and I know that in those days their agents and spooks were the best of the best, and much more ruthless, of course. This time their tactics (like bird-dogging me with guys on pizza-delivery motorbikes, or shadowing me in the shopping malls) are so obvious they’re downright embarrassing. I could helpfully give them a few pointers, owing to longtime experience.

For example, last Wednesday noon I was happily being feted with a "birthday lunch" (it’s becoming a month-long celebration, deplorably for my . . . er waistline) at the second floor of Azzurro Restaurant in the Somerset Millennium Condotel on Aguirre St., Legazpi Village, in Makati. I wasn’t the only honoree, really, since two other friends, plus the host, were also celebrating their birthdays.

Anyway, the waiter came up to me and said urgently: "Sir, you have a phone call." To my surprise, he led me not to the Azzurro restaurant’s phone, but downstairs to the hotel reception desk. The puzzled desk clerk said that he had received a phone call from a man who said: "The car of Mr. Max Soliven is parked outside your hotel. May I ask if he is inside?" Alas, the inquiring spook had already hung up.

Gee whiz. Did they expect to find me in bed upstairs with some chick? (At my age, I’m flattered.) What a way to snoop, however. I guess I’m simply paranoid.