Undirected

The turnout for last Thursday’s “million-man march” against the pork barrel could hardly be called rousing. Only a couple of thousand participated in the rallies organized at the Bonifacio Shrine in Manila.

Blame the rain for the poor turnout; or blame the leftist groups who manage to turn away crowds rather than draw them. Blaming either will not be productive, however.

Perhaps street demonstrations are so twentieth century. In our traffic-choked but highly networked society, there might be better ways to get people engaged in political change than having them trudge on wet streets in balmy weather.

The poor turnout for last Thursday’s rallies does not mean our citizens are not seething with rage over the systematic theft of public funds. The rage is there, only it is undirected.

The only real underside is that so many have given up on the problem of corruption, accepting it as part of the natural order. The more things change, the more they remain the same. That makes political engagement futile.

If we want broad public engagement on this issue, we should set clear tipping points where popular involvement will be decisive. We know the public could be relied on during decisive moments. We saw that in the two Edsa risings the past decades.

The main hindrance to the provision of a clear direction to the rage is that there is no effective leadership available. Normally, political parties supply that leadership. We have no real political parties.

None of the politicians on the scaffolding could provide leadership to a public that is agitated but confused. On this score, all the politicians are suspect.

Too, those most loudly protesting via social media are also immune to political organizing. There is a remarkable disconnect between the Lone Rangers blogging on social media and the sort of disciplined cadres needed to bring together masses of people on a clear line of march.

Demanding the prosecution of all the politicians involved in looting the pork requires a certain suspension of disbelief. That call is a little too abstract. We cannot imagine as imminent the jailing of the entire political class.

Prosecution is a matter that belongs to the province of judicial procedures. It is long and tedious — and it will not solve the problem of political looting. That problem requires an agenda of political and bureaucratic reform. 

Agreed, we have to dismantle the pork barrel state. That strategic goal will have to be configured in a way where we could win tactical victories along the way, tactical victories sealed by public engagement.

We can begin by demanding an end to all discretionary funds in the 2015 budget. With the Supreme Court outlawing the PDAF and, hopefully, declaring the DAP unconstitutional, political action should now be directed at insertions, lump sums and other such means by which politicians are able to control the deployment of pubic funds either for partisan ends or for personal enrichment.

Short

This is how it is done.

The DPWH demonstrated it was a class above the DOTC when it disqualified giant conglomerate San Miguel Corporation’s bid for the Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALAx) project. The new expressway will cost about P35.4 billion and will open up towns in the two provinces suffering from choked provincial roads.

San Miguel, in a costly oversight, submitted a bid bond that was valid for only 176 days. The bidding rules clearly set the required bond period at 180 days. For the rules-bound DPWH bids and awards committee, that was reason enough for outright disqualification.

The larger message is not to be missed: for public projects, large or small, the bidding rules must not be elastic. Nor may they be bended to accommodate certain bidders. 

While their lawyers may argue that the infraction was too minor to adversely affect San Miguel’s bid, it was still an infraction. I have observed bid proceedings in the past where bidders were disqualified for failure to notarize certain documents. If bidders show carelessness in meeting the bid requirements, should they be trusted to deliver well if they win?

Building an expressway may not seem like rocket science, but it is. If corners are cut, as they were in the number of days in San Miguel’s bid bond, the public stands to inherit an imperfect road. We already have too many of those.

Spokesmen for San Miguel announced the conglomerate will exhaust all legal remedies to fight their exclusion from the CALAx bidding. But what will they do, drag the DPWH to court for scrupulously following all the bidding rules?

If San Miguel takes this course, the conglomerate will only be doing a Bong Revilla. They compound a predicament by making fools of themselves.

The better option is for San Miguel to honorably accept the consequences of submitting a bid bond that is four days short of the requirement. Four days short is short. The result is failure to meet the requirements to qualify. The penalty is disqualification.

By challenging their disqualification, San Miguel threatens to set a bad precedent. They will be basically arguing for elastic rules. They will make future bid exercises vulnerable to challenge from those who fail to meet requirements. That cannot possibly be healthy.

Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson advises San Miguel to save energy from senseless whining. The giant conglomerate might instead prepare to bid for the Laguna Lake circumferential expressway.

That other project is four times the cost of the CALAx. This is a project for the big boys. San Miguel might want this, but it will have to begin acting like a big boy.