EDITORIAL - Corruption incentive

The country has tough laws covering a wide range of graft-related offenses.

Yet here we are, confronting one of the worst corruption scandals, with too many people – public officials and civilians alike – clearly believing that corruption pays.

One of the biggest reasons for this has to be the weakness of the legal system, which allows crooks to keep their loot, if not for their personal enjoyment, then for their spouses, children and other relatives.

Even when confronted with some certainty of conviction, a defendant in a corruption case often can still personally enjoy the proceeds of the crime for many years, while the case is crawling along in the judiciary.

That long delay can even work in favor of the defendant, who can then move for the dismissal of the case by invoking “inordinate delay” in the litigation. In several cases, defendants have invoked dementia and unfitness to stand trial. Others died before they could be convicted with finality and punished.

Consider the latest example, involving the “ghost” repair and maintenance of 28 V-150 light armored vehicles of the Philippine National Police, with procurements of spare parts, engines and transmission assemblies costing taxpayers P397.58 million.

Those ghost procurements were made from 2007 to 2008. Charges of graft and malversation through falsification of public documents were filed in court by the Office of the Ombudsman only in 2013 against several police officials and private contractors led by former PNP chief Avelino Razon Jr., comptroller Lt. Col. Rainier Espina and PNP chief accountant Antonio Retrato.

It took 12 years for the Sandiganbayan to resolve the case last month, with those three former PNP officials all acquitted ostensibly for failure of the prosecution to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt. The millions believed to have been pocketed from the illegal deal would have already been used by the guilty and their relatives.

Five lower-ranking former PNP officials were found guilty by the anti-graft court and sentenced to combined prison terms of up to 40 years: Col. Emmanuel Ojeda who chaired the bids and awards committee of the Logistics Support Service; Col. Reuel Leverne Labrado, former LSS-BAC vice chairman; Lt. Col. Josefina Dumanew, former assistant chief of the administrative and resources management division; and LSS-BAC members Maj. Analee Forro and M/Sgt. Victor Puddao.

People fear that this snail-paced justice will also be seen in the ongoing crackdown on corruption in flood control and other infrastructure projects. Those in charge of the legal system must move quickly to allay those fears.

Slow justice is injustice. And it’s one of the biggest incentives for corruption.