The Futile Efforts of the Philippine Government
Posted on Tuesday, 1 July 2014
The Futile Efforts of the Philippine
Government
By Apolinario Villalobos
Lately, the Commission of Audit, (COA)
admitted the difficulty in checking the flow of donations for the victims of
the typhoon Yolanda, after finding out their unsystematic handling, from the
day they are received until the day of distribution. As expected, there is no
admission even for a single fault among
the agencies involved. And to think that this is just one among the many
discrepancies in the administration of the Philippine government that are
waiting to be assessed.
Since the time that the Philippines was
weaned from the protection of foreign governments, leaders who have diverse
calling in life tried to effectively steer the country towards progress, to no
avail. It is a general perception that lawyers are good government leaders,
this is proven wrong several times, hence, the Filipinos tried an ordinary
housewife, whose administration, unfortunately just bred more corrupt
officials. Then came, a
general, an actor, an expert in public administration and
management, yet, corruption just got worse. Now, a supposedly brilliant guy is
holding the reins, but it is a public knowledge that he does not listen to
suggestions. On TV, this kind of character has been emphasized by no less than
a senator.
My wild and desperate idea is to give a
cleric the chance to run the government – regardless of religious affiliation.
Since a charismatic leader did not deliver as expected, perhaps, a religious
one this time may be able to use the threat of hell in cleansing the government
of corruption. Being a religious gives him the clout to shout a warning to
corrupt officials to change their ways if they do not want to suffer in hell.
Seriously, for as long as there are corrupt
people who walk the corridors of government agencies, no hope is in sight for
the country. These people will always find ways and means to jumble smooth
systems of operations within the agencies that will further jumble the overall
process of the government. These pests will continue to beleaguer the
government due to the resounding NOTHING
as an answer to the following questions:
What results can we expect from investigations of corruption cases
conducted by corrupt officials? What can
we expect from a government that has already identified loopholes in
inter-agency operations but refuses to plug such holes, because party
colleagues are in the way? What can we expect from government agencies that hold
press conferences to broadcast their actions even before concerned parties are
properly informed, and blame each other if confusion ensued?
Discussion