“Magsasalita ako laban sa katiwalian at
pagsasamantala
Hindi ko gagamitin ang aking panunungkulan
Sa sarili kong kapakanan
Hindi ako hihingi o tatanggap ng suhol”
Every Monday morning, without fail all government workers
would recite “Panunumpa ng Kawani ng Gobyerno” during their weekly morning
rituals. (In our case, even if it rains,
we’ll have our flag ceremonies indoor.) The
inclusion of the recitation of this pledge, I just learned, was first observed
in 1995. It was a reform mechanism aimed
at reorienting the work attitude of government officials and employees by
constantly reminding them of how they must conduct themselves as public
servants to bring about a more responsive, efficient and commitment public
service” (DepEd Order No. 15, s. 1995).
If only this oath has been taken seriously to heart,
President Rodrigo Duterte—and, of course, all other presidents after Fidel V.
Ramos—would have been deprived of one of his two winning campaign promises of
ridding the bureaucracy of graft and corruption. The other, of course, is eliminating
criminality and freeing the country from the clutches of illegal drugs whose
proliferation now appears intertwined with graft and corruption.
I voted for him solely on the merit of that promise. I was among the millions that were neck deep
in exasperation with crime and corruption and opted to forego my usual
stringent selection process of looking and analyzing the candidates’ political
platforms, or what could have passed as ones.
I totally agreed with a professor of a local university—in Angeles City—that
any candidate can just commission a good undergraduate political science
student to come up with his/her political platform. But, at the rate election promises are
customarily treated, these political platforms will end up in trash bins as
soon as the candidates are elected into office—if not much earlier as soon as
they’re made public.
Without these two issues and how he conveyed them to the
people, President Duterte would have not captured the imagination of the masses
and catapulted him to the country’s highest political post. Most likely, he’ll just be a mere footnote in
rural politics known for his unconventional, but relatively effective, approach
in keeping peace and order in Davao City.
With more or less
10,000 lives, practically all poor, prematurely snuffed out gangland style,
there seems to be no end in sight for this social malaise. Yes, it’s true, there was “relative calm”
early on during the “Operation Tokhang", but Duterte himself unashamedly,
albeit reluctantly, admitted that he cannot lick this malaise even at the end
of his term.
Which brings me to his pronouncement during
the 37th Principal Training and Development and National Board
Conference Program in Davao City last 5 May 2018 where he said, “I was the only
one carrying the message that was appropriate at that time: corruption,
drugs. I won’t hold back on that, my
God. If you are into corruption, just
leave. I’ll give you time. For those into it now, in government,
published or otherwise, may you have the sense just to tender your
resignation”. (Philippine Star, May 7,
2018). But, did the erring public
servants heeded and took seriously his declaration “to just leave their posts
quietly, as he stressed that he would not let up his anticorruption campaign”.
More than a month
after his “plea to leave” was announced, no families of government workers have
yet to be shown on national television anguishing over the death of what to them
were their morally upright and innocent relatives. What we saw were a few corruption-tainted
under and assistant secretaries terminated—but who had the gall to claim they
voluntarily resigned—and a couple or two more being asked to tender their
courtesy resignations. Unlike the poor
suspected drug pushers, no public servant has yet to be sent to Kingdom Come on
mere suspicion.
Is this fair?
Obviously,
not. This only highlights further the
divide between the haves and the have nots.
The poor have nots are summarily executed and waylaid gangland style in
dimly lit street corners. The haves government officials, on the other hand, are
rewarded with time to savor the loots and fruits of criminal adventurisms.
This leaves the
old man to believe that Duterte’s justice is no different from others before
him. The promised change evidently does
not hold true with this one. Had it been
different and, more importantly, if he really walks the talk, he would also be
grieving the loss of his vice mayor-son—who’s implicated over the attempted mind-boggling
six-billion shabu smuggling.
With this ambivalent
early unfolding of events as backdrop, will the people in government who are
into corruption cringe in fear and heed his plea? Will this put a stop to bureaucratic graft
and corruption, even if only momentarily, like what his “Operation Tokhang” did
to the drug trade?
What this this
old sad man is sure of is, that like the drug menace, the president will not be
able to lick graft and corruption in government. His kid’s glove treatment of high-profile corrupt
public servants will never deter and will hardly dent the brazenness of others
to follow their lucratively criminal adventurisms. (30)
