Predators

From CEOs to ordinary employees, Filipinos are pitching in to ease the suffering of millions of typhoon victims. Charity runs deep in this country.

Unfortunately, so does corruption.

In a certain sector, people are still appalled by the recent turnover of a P20-million donation for flood victims directly to a public official notorious for greed instead of to a non-partisan, credible non-government organization. In exchange, the one who turned over the money will enjoy a six-month financial incentive of sorts in his family’s business. Corruption is a two-way affair.

The owner of a hardware store donated less than that amount, in kind, to a local official. Without even waiting for the donor to leave, the official rang up someone and gave instructions to list the donation as a purchase by the government. How many other officials are doing this in the midst of deep public misery?

These vultures are giving a new dimension to seeing opportunity in every crisis. And they’re not the only crooks.

Several people involved in relief work have related stories of the same victims going back several times to receive bags of relief goods. A volunteer who dared accost one such victim was pelted with stones.

Some of these victims were motivated purely by extreme need. But others, it turned out, were deployed by barangay officials who wanted to corner the donations for their relatives and friends.

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Over in the den of crocodiles, the Malacañang-proposed 2010 national budget has been approved without amendments, leaving the Senate to give the measure a finer scrutiny.

The approval by the House of Representatives was remarkable for two other things: the speed of the process, and the fact that congressmen were silent on suggestions that their pork barrel allocations be used for typhoon relief and rehabilitation.

Despite constant reminders of the continuing suffering of millions from floods and mudslides, many politicians are preoccupied not with disaster mitigation but their re-election bids. If they can use the disaster for the advancement of partisan ends, so much the better.

There is no way lawmakers (with the exception of a handful such as Sen. Panfilo Lacson) will voluntarily part with their pork barrel in an election year.

President Arroyo, who through the budget process can compel the use of the congressional pork for relief and rehabilitation, lacks the political will to antagonize her allies at this time. Especially when she herself will not give up her own version of pork, including intelligence funds that require no auditing, for disaster mitigation.

She would rather source funds from private and foreign donors.

But because her administration has been suffering for some time from a crisis of credibility, donors are hesitating to entrust their aid – whether in cash or kind — to the government.

Stories of predatory utilization of donations, now circulating in various circles, can only worsen donor unease.

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Some traditional sources of assistance such as the World Bank have put in place a system of oversight in the utilization of their aid by recipient countries.

The utilization is monitored periodically, and I imagine such a system would be applied, state of calamity or not, when the WB realigns $400 million for Philippine rehabilitation projects.

Other governments are coursing their donations through the Philippine National Red Cross, international organizations such as the World Food Program and the United Nations Children’s Fund, or non-government organizations with proven track records for honesty and efficiency.

Still others are working directly with the agencies that still enjoy credibility in this administration: the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Department of Health.

The amount of foreign assistance may be less than expected, but it’s arriving. Finding grants, concessional loans or private foreign investors to finance the immense infrastructure requirements for rehabilitation and long-term flood control could be harder at this time.

Even before “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” struck, several foreign diplomats had already told me that their businessmen were holding back on plans for expansion or investment in the Philippines, preferring to wait for a new administration to come in.

The investors are worried that contracts won’t be honored by the next administration, that projects already in the pipeline will be scrapped, that new rules will be imposed and additional requirements slapped on their companies, and worse, that they could become entangled in a corruption scandal.

Investors who factor in corruption as a normal cost of doing business in this part of the world also worry that after paying off officials of the current administration, they will have to pay off a new set in the next.

And so they are holding on to their money, or taking it to neighboring countries where the investment environment is more predictable.

China could be a more willing partner in rehabilitation, but it has been burned by the corruption scandal involving one of its biggest companies, ZTE. The Management Association of the Philippines had asked the previous Chinese ambassador to initiate a probe of ZTE, but the ambassador ended his stint without giving a response and without any action from Beijing on the MAP request.

If Beijing is serious in its avowed commitment to promote transparency, there will be no repeat of the ZTE mess at least in this country. But even if the Chinese do not heed the lessons of that scandal, Filipinos will be closely scrutinizing any rehabilitation or flood control project financed through Chinese concessional loans, which always require the participation of Chinese companies.

China was among the countries that quickly responded to the Philippines’ cry for help amid the flooding. There are no reports that its donations have been misused.

The requirements for immediate relief and long-term rehabilitation and flood control are enormous. Since we continue to rely heavily on outside help, we should show the world that we can be entrusted to use aid properly.