EDITORIAL - Crime and punishment

Like the Philippine National Police, whose first chief was indicted for corruption, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao did not get off to an auspicious start. Last week the Supreme Court upheld the conviction of the first governor of the ARMM, Zacaria Candao, together with his brother and two other former ARMM officials for malversation of public funds amounting to P21 million.

With Candao and the three others being found guilty of nine counts of malversation, the sentence is a maximum of 153 years behind bars plus permanent disqualification from public office. The high court upheld the ruling of the Sandiganbayan, which found that the defendants had illegally withdrawn a total of more than P21 million from the ARMM’s accounts from December 1992 to March 1993.

Since then the ARMM has had a string of bad luck with its governors. Moro National Liberation Front chieftain Nur Misuari was accused of corruption and using public funds to build up a personal armory. The Ampatuans followed, and would not have loosened their grip on the autonomous region if not for the massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao in November 2009. Ampatuan relatives continue to hold key positions in the ARMM.

With its executives focusing on personal interests and perpetuating the culture of violence that has long plagued the autonomous region, the ARMM has remained one of the country’s poorest areas. It has become an example of what bad governance can do. And it poses one of the biggest challenges to the Aquino admi-nistration’s commitment to clean up government.

Perhaps the fate of Candao will discourage government officials in the ARMM from treating public money as personal funds. It will be even better if any member of the Ampatuan clan will be found guilty of misusing public funds, as has been widely suspected following the family’s fall from power after the Maguindanao massacre. One reason government officials continue to loot public coffers with impunity is because they think they can get away with it. Cases such as Candao’s should start disabusing them of that belief.