Another day, another substandard public works project to view.
In yet another inspection sortie, President Marcos visited a slope protection and rock shed project along Kennon Road in Benguet. Expectedly, it was another disappointing day. The project was substandard and prone to collapse after the first heavy rain.
While at it, the President might want to inspect recently built bridges. Those bridges, too, will bring him disappointment. But it is necessary to have a good look at them in the interest of public safety.
How many projects will the President have to see up close before this exercise begins to look repetitive – almost an exercise in masochism? He can spend all the remaining days of his term looking at crumbling projects and not see all of them.
At some point, BBM might want to shift his focus from ocular inspections to developing strategies to fight the cancer of corruption in our public works. At some point, he has to decide he has seen enough and start finding solutions.
The main reason the Philippines is falling behind our neighbors in the region is because our infrastructure backbone remained backward. For an archipelago, this strategic failure is inexcusable.
Last month, Vietnam finally overtook us, posting a higher GDP per capita. We used to be the most promising economy in Southeast Asia until our governance failed us. Vietnam decisively rebuilt its war-ravaged nation and surged ahead.
Soon Indonesia will be running its high-speed rail system, making the movement of people and goods between its main cities more efficient. Anticipating the long-term consequences of climate change, she is building a new capital city in a sparsely populated island.
Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam are building massive rail systems with China’s support. These systems, covered by the Belt and Road Initiative, will link them more closely to the powerhouse Chinese economy.
Meanwhile, we have our hands full looking for river embankments that do not exist and clearing waterways that double as garbage disposal systems. Meanwhile, we have work and school interruptions after each heavy monsoon downpour.
We were once labelled “The Sick Man of Asia,” especially after the debt crisis of the late eighties. We have slid back to that role.
The two factors that brought us down then are rapidly bringing us down today: unchecked corruption and unchecked propensity to incur debt. The latter funds the former.
At some point, hopefully soon, BBM will concede that the problem is systemic. The solutions, therefore, must also be systemic.
Among BBM’s first acts, when he assumed the presidency, was to abolish the presidential anti-corruption commission. Now we know that such an organ of government should have been expanded and empowered rather than abolished.
There are a few remedial steps that could be done at this point to at least rein in the corruption happening all over. But they require some political will.
First, the budget process needs to be radically reimagined. The orgy of congressional insertions that happened the past two years must be stopped. Legislators should not be originating public projects and then acting as “funders” of the same. Minor projects should be transferred to the oversight of local governments.
The problem here is that the Speaker of the House is BBM’s cousin. He has the support of congressmen because his cup always flows over. The majority leader is BBM’s own son.
There is a reason why our public works spending is composed mainly of “minor” projects. Because of bureaucratic inefficiency and unmitigated corruption, we were better off privatizing the major ones: airports, ports and superhighways. The only large projects handled by the DPWH are the foreign assisted ones – the same ones defunded by Congress to the nation’s eternal embarrassment.
Second, as is done in some advanced economies, government projects must be covered by warranties. When the dikes collapse or a bridge falls, it becomes the contractual responsibility of the private contractors to rebuild them at no cost to the taxpayer.
Notice how well-built the private sector tollways are and how shoddy the public roads have become. This is because it does not profit private companies to put their money in substandard structures. On the contrary, it profits the bureaucrats and contractors when roads have to be repaved every year.
We have very good engineers. Our tollway companies have been invited to run projects in neighboring countries. But we have a dysfunctional public works system.
Third, we need an empowered Truth Commission manned by respected citizens to oversee the fraud audit of the most notorious contractors and their political patrons. Before our flood-soaked citizens revolt, we need to quickly file plunder charges against the most notorious raiders of public funds: those most scandalously indulging in conspicuous consumption.
The only reason outraged people are not in the streets is because the streets are inconveniently flooded. Also, because the masters of street demonstrations – the leftist groups – are now allied with the plunderers. But the nonexistent flood-control projects permeate every conversation these days.
Eventually, we need to outline an agenda of political and institutional reforms to combat the kleptocracy that has now displaced proper government. This agenda must be substantive and forward-looking – certainly of a different caliber than the “bold reset” BBM promised us earlier this year. That “bold reset” delivered nothing.
The list of reforms is long and this column is short.