WB Report must galvanize us

There is a seeming confusion in our country on what to do with the reported World Bank paper that reputedly contains derogatory remarks on the Philippines. To recall, there allegedly was a report from inner sanctums of the World Bank saying that it was withholding the release of international funds for Philippine development projects. Its reason was anchored on the existence of a cabal that rigged the process of selecting the companies to do the construction. No matter how it should be read, it simply meant that corruption determined which contractor would get which project – the kind of corruption that considered the highest office of the land as it area of operation.

The first point of confusion is the presence and availability of that report. It is important to read it and know its contents first hand. Best evidence, according to the lawyers. Apparently, it is available but unfortunately, it is also not available. Di ba maka buang! If the news that has so far filtered to ordinary mortals like me were to be believed, this document is available because the World Bank has furnished, a long time ago yet, copies of it to responsible offices to mean the Office of the President and the Ombudsman. But, Office of the President values its silence and the Ombudsman would want to divulge its contents. I felt insulted when a gentleman from that office recently said that the document was given to them in confidence so that it was duty bound to keep it secret! 

The second point of confusion takes the form of the different approaches to the issues by th Senate, the Ombudsman and Malacañang. Of course, their separate constitutional mandates provide the matrix of their divergence. To each his own function and corresponding responsibility. Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, unlike the leaders of other countries, has, by sitting on the report, decided to be a different president. While the heads of states similarly placed as the Philippines in so far as this World Bank report is concerned, acted swiftly, by causing their wheels of justice to turn and ferret out the corrupt, our own president, it seems to me, is unwilling to know the workings of the corrupt much less pursue them in the courts of justice.

The other night, I heard a Malacañang official giving out some kind of a caution. He was, to me, less explicit but his ambiguity was more by design than caused by paucity of words. While, for example, he harped on the disastrous repercussion of continued public discussion on this World Bank derogatory report, he did not say why. Another Malacañang apologist chided the World Bank for its apparent condemnation of Philippine practitioners of corruption when, to him, there was no thorough investigation. I could not hear him express what he really wanted to say: “Where is the evidence?”

At the Senate, the confusion is sharper. Initially, the point of their difference may be traceable to politics. There are the senators who are allied to the president as there are opposed. So, there is nothing we can do about it. The pro-administration senators, up to the point that they can balance between serving the president the people, will do everything they can to protect the president whose husband appeared in the vortex of this issue of corruption.

But even the scholars among the pro-administration legislators could not agree on whether or not to ask the presidential spouse to appear before them, under the pain of contempt, to shed light on why his name was connected to the corrupt.

I like to see our leaders re-examine their positions and remove the air of confusion. They can re-channel their divergent thoughts and think only about promoting the interests of the Filipino people. I am sure that out of the explosion of patriotic ideas arising from the World Bank report they can galvanize their unity of purpose in order to grab the opportunity for us to clear our name as a nation. Acting quickly on this World Bank report is a step in that direction.