Undoubtedly, the greatest social evil we face today is what the U.S. Statesman Richard Nixon described as “concoction of nepotism and corruption.” Nepotism and corruption in the Philippines was declared by independent and international groups involved in surveys and social studies. Some quarters alleged that our country is the 7th most corrupt nation. This drew criticism from conservative Filipino community, though.

Fighting against the uncontrollable dimension of graft and corruption is not an easy matter because it has been a part of our culture, so to speak. We are oriented to receive “lagays” even at home.

To illustrate: parents usually give money or food items to crying children. That is “bribery.” Parents know that by offering items, their children would stop crying, and that to avoid irritation or pestering, parents would rather give in to children’s demands. On the other hand, children would realize that by crying, they get what they want.

This poses danger when domestic discipline is not enforced. When the child grows up, his services as government employee will be less efficient if grease money is not dangled. As time goes on, the corrupt could not help but embrace the culture of government corruption for easy money.

With this scenario, business transactions with the government become questionable. The conduct o0f bidding of projects ends up in the hands of either a relative or crony. The worse, dummies are used to orchestrate winning streaks by pre-arranged strategy.

Sometimes the projects are delayed due to unofficial reasons. Sometimes the projects are not completed as expected. An in spite of sound and complete project programming, the allocated funds become mysteriously insufficient.

And when the projects are completed, the quality of work is poor. But with the connivance of the inspector or any person in charge, the magically created projects pass the mark.

This is the evil scenario of the country nowadays. Corruption and nepotism has been “permitted” and the SOP Syndrome has been cultured on us. But if we strive to be honest one way after another, we may be able to abandon the evil of corruption. (nmbdablo@yahoo.com)

Last update: 21-03-2009 05:09