Perks

VIPs can no longer use their wang-wang and blinkers to get ahead of the hoi polloi in heavy traffic.

Following the example of the presidential sisters, VIPs may also have to start carrying their own luggage and lining up, just like the rest of us peasants, at the airport X-ray machines and immigration, at least before they finally get the VIP treatment that they pay for in first or business class.

What other perks can VIPs lose? P-Noy can reduce the number of police and military officers working as bodyguards of VIPs. Those cops and soldiers are paid by taxpayers to keep everyone safe, and not just a privileged few. Often, the bodyguards function as politicians’ private armies.

In several high-profile assassinations, such as those of Basilan Rep. Wahab Akbar in 2007 and former Abra Rep. Luis Bersamin in 2006, bodyguards proved useless anyway. Bersamin’s police escort died with him.

P-Noy mentioned at his inaugural address that the number of police and military personnel has not grown commensurately with rapid population growth. If he can drastically cut the number of police and military personnel on bodyguard detail, he can put off his plan to hire more cops and soldiers. He need not lead by example here; national security requires that the president of the republic is sufficiently guarded at all times.

The interior and defense departments should conduct an inventory of cops and soldiers detailed as bodyguards not just of public officials but also of many private individuals.

Maybe if those in power plus their relatives and cronies start losing the perks long associated with public office in this country, we might have fewer politicians and more of what the country needs: scientists, engineers, health professionals, educators, entrepreneurs, technological innovators.

A low-key former first lady, in an interview shortly after her husband’s retirement, was asked what she missed from her previous life. Her quick, candid reply: no traffic.

Exempt a policy maker from suffering and there is little incentive to eliminate its cause. If VIPs are made to suffer like the rest of us, we might see rapid improvements in many aspects of Pinoy life, starting with traffic management and public safety.

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If VIPs and perceived power blocs are not allowed to meddle in promotions and appointments in government, we might finally develop a merit-based society. But this reform looks like a long shot at this point.

Transparency is more doable though equally challenging. If transparency rules are applied in the utilization of the congressional pork barrel and strictly enforced in other sectors of government, a career in politics could look much less attractive.

Why do politicians commit murder, literally, over a position that lasts three years and pays a pittance? Because of the perks of political power, including vast opportunities for growing personal wealth.

Honest personnel at the Department of Public Works and Highways, consistently ranked as one of the most corrupt government agencies, have lamented that apart from crooks in their department, the pork barrel system has allowed fly-by-night contractors whose companies do not meet DPWH requirements to bag even large contracts.

Try raising the lack of qualifications of a company favored by a congressman and you hear snarling as if from a pit bull and various versions of the favorite VIP challenge, “Kilala mo ba kung sino ako (Do you know who I am)?”

The proper response to that question is, “Of course I know who you are, a lawmaker who should set the example in upholding the law.” But who will dare put his job on the line over something that has become institutionalized in Philippine society?

A more practical response, for a government employee who has mastered the art of survival, is to simply look the other way or, if he has the guts or the connections, to ask, “What’s in it for me?”

For every fat government deal won, either through the pork barrel or, for big-ticket contracts, through connections at the top levels of government, there’s a fat commission to be made. P-Noy will have to set the example to his Cabinet members in making sure there will be no more corruption scandals involving the chief executive, his relatives and members of his official family.

In the legislature, applying transparency rules in utilization of the pork barrel will discourage lawmakers from forcing government agencies to award contracts even to companies that do not meet qualifying requirements. It could also discourage the widespread practice of using the congressional pork to build infrastructure facilities that chiefly benefit the endorsing lawmaker’s family enterprises.

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The pork barrel gives lawmakers a say in projects that must be given priority by the national government.

But under budgeting rules, the president has the power of the purse and can compel Congress to give priority to certain projects. He can release funding, for example, only for projects involving public education, such as the construction of classrooms.

That power over fund releases has to be the biggest reason for political realignments at the start of every new Congress, with almost everyone jumping to the party of the winner.

That power can and has been used successfully to block efforts to impeach the president. It takes conviction for a congressman to risk losing one’s pork by supporting an impeachment and sending the case to the Senate for trial.

As one congressman bewailed in the previous Congress, a lawmaker can be deemed completely useless by his constituents if he cannot get the necessary funding for projects that they want.

Because he has promised to lead by example, President Aquino, if he wants transparency in the utilization of the congressional pork, will also have to be fully transparent in the use of his own pork barrel, which is huge compared to the amounts allotted per congressman and senator.

Can the new leaders say goodbye to all these perks? Seeing what has happened in the case of the wang-wang, the nation holds its breath.