Immediate and long-term solutions to address corruption

The uncovering of a massive and systematic plunder of public funds in the government’s flood control projects has led the nation to the edge of despair. No other scandal in the annals of the country has triggered so much outrage as the thievery perpetrated by high government officials in collusion with crooks in the private sector. As this unfolds after the debacle of the Supreme Court in Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment case, this heady mix of disservice permeating the entire government is creating a perfect political storm that is ominous and destabilizing.

The people are crying for blood, and this public manifestation of mob rule may not just be anger, but a deep-seated desire for quick retribution and punishment for the guilty. Were we in a dictatorship or totalitarian system of government, the mob might just get its wish, but may not necessarily escape the sword that it wants to draw so quickly against those it perceives to be corrupt and guilty. It is therefore in the best interest of accountability that we all accept that there is a legal process to unmask and punish the culprits and their ilk.

This is why the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) deserves all the support from the government and the public. It has so far performed creditably and expeditiously in investigating the flood control mess and recommending indictments. Enhanced with more power and resources, and being a nonpolitical body not beholden to power, it is the best option we have to get to the core of our corrupt system, more than any congressional inquiry, whose limited mandate is only to gather enough data to craft legislation, not to prosecute and convict the guilty.

But a successful ICI is not enough to weather the political storm that is gathering force day by day. In a very real sense, the nation is at a crossroads. It is straddling between damnation and deliverance, or, to paraphrase a line in a Charles Dickens novel, “It is the best of times, it was the worst of times” that we are in now. Worse, because the billions of pesos stolen by the architects of graft are so staggering and emanate from a wide swath of the government that the public is all but left with no hope that we can ever have an upright government.

Yet, this moment in our history can also be the best of times because desperate problems require desperate measures. In this context, we can address the crisis with short-term and long-term initiatives and head off the burgeoning outrage of the people, which is reaching a breaking point. For the short term, in addition to an antidynasty law that is now being taken up in Congress, there should be a revision of bidding and procurement laws to prevent collusion, and a law for transparency in the budget process. These pieces of legislation should be certified by the President for immediate enactment to assure the nation of its determination to reform our corrupt system once and for all.

Finally, as a long-term course of action, we should have a constitutional convention to revise the 1987 Constitution. Among other substantive proposals, there are fundamental, ideological, and pragmatic considerations to shift to a unicameral legislature, which, as the record shows, was likewise seriously considered by the constitutional commission that drafted the existing Constitution. Until then, we need to be calm and united and protect our democracy, because, as one British statesman said, “Democracy is unruly, but all others are a complete disaster.”

Ancheta K. Tan,
ancheta.tan@cltpsj.com.ph