Vinia Datinguinoo Mukherjee: Congratulations, PCIJ! Mabuhay kayo!
Lead Philippines: But without credible mass media there, what is left to protect the people..?
vonjobi: it's juned sOniDo.
Lead Philippines: Can't believe this is still happening in the country. If the government does nothing, I won't be...
Keith Bacongco: who could we forget Alecks here in Mindanao... aside from PCIJ trainings, he also helped us a lot...

Latest Message 3 days, 18 hours ago

hopeless_race : Sana itreat naman po ng media ang hacienda luisita at mendiola massacre na parang MAGUINADANAO MASSACRE. Ipublicized ang mga katotohanan at ipakita sa tao ang karumaldumal na pinaggagawa sa mga farmers dun. Untouchable po ba sila cory at danding at hindi magawang batikusin ng media about these two massacres?
hopeless_race : Kapag napaguusapan ang mendiola at hacienda luisita massacre ay parang walang nangyari at parang hindi big deal. Anu po ba ang pinagkaiba ng dalawang nabanggit na massacre sa maguindanao massacre?
hopeless_race : Its sad that we pinoys are blind to the fact of what had happened in mendiola and hacienda luisita. Ang tanong..bakit ang media ay hindi manlang matackle ang ganitong usapin? Takot ba sila kay cory at danding?
hopeless_race : Wilkins" brand, for P1.4 billion.-1999 Sugarland Multi-Food Corp. for P2.9 billion 2001- Purefoods Corp P7 billion P60 billion Coca-Cola ... See More 2002- Cosmos Bottling Corp. from RFM Corp. for P14.1 billion October 2008- GSIS' shares in Meralco worth PHP30 Billion. December 2008- country's biggest oil refiner, Petron Corporation. international company shopping spree: Australian boutique brewer J. Boag and Son for A$96 million in 2000. $97 million for Thai Amarit Brewery Ltd $35.5 mi
hopeless_race : Gud am..glad to be back.
jr_lad : rip mr. alecks pabico. you'll be greatly missed!
sevens21 : Dati input mo lng name at SSS ID makukuha mo agad STATIC INFO...
sevens21 : tawag ka sa HOTLINE nila walang ANSWER grrr we need pa namn ng static info SSS Gising!!!
sevens21 : Gawa naman po kayo ng article about SSS. Pangit ng site nila dali ma blocked ng account
guest_899 : we must check the background of each potential candidates to avoid having another big mistake like GMA
guest_899 : congratulations to PCIJ, more power and God Bless !
jazzymuver : how did Arroyo swallow that kind of things!! how come that she just spend the money our countrymen for her own sake!!
guest_3664 : i would be glad if u can include the investigation of the manner public officials announce infra projects as per COA regulation. It is frustrating to see their faces on the tarpaulin instead of the prescribed information like name of project, date of implementation,amount of contract, source/s of fund, among other things. This is very rampant here in Marikina. Thanks and more power on your noble endeavors. We need people like you to have make our country great again.
jhanz_08 : im making research on R.A 9136...with rgards to the privatization of NPC..could someone out there can let me understand more bout this matter?why was monopoly dismantled?email me..jhanycem@yahoo.com...thanks much
erika marie : P.S.:) my paper is due next week and i do hope someone could provide me these reports coming from reliable resources thank you ulit.
erika marie : P.S.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study regarding political killings in the philippines. could someone out there please send me human rights reports under Aquino and Ramos administration. you could send it at my email: erikamariet@yahoo.com your response would surely be very much appreciated. thank you everyone. god bless.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study for my paper regarding political killings in the philippines. i noted that there are no human rights reports during the Aquino and Ramos administration. could someone out there please send me reports regarding these matter? i do hope these reports came from reliable resources you could send it in my email; erikamariet@yahoo.comyour response would surely be appreciated. thanks everyone. god bless.
jayson bourne : gusto ko po maging member ng PCIJ, panu po ba? may application po ba? sana mapadalhan nyo ako ng info sa email ko... www.jboxpenshoppe@yahoo.com
jayson bourne : cory is OK, but kris & Noynoy sensationalize masyado...
guest_9891 : LABAN pa rin!
meow : boycotts worked during marcos years. how about doing it now against the businesses of the con-ass congressmen?
meow : aside from 168, what other establishments can we boycott that belong to the arroyos and their cronies?
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Corruption’s many manifestations

Posted by: Alecks P. Pabico | October 18, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Filed under: Governance, In the News

PRESS Secretary Ignacio Bunye initially referred to them as donations. The congressmen who admitted to being recipients considered these either as cash gifts or party contributions. None, including the two governors who first came forward to shed light on the matter, Ed Panlilio of Pampanga and Joselito Mendoza of Bulacan, thought they were being bribed. Environment Secretary Lito Atienza even went to the extent of saying such “gift-giving” is customary, relating how he was handed out P100,000-200,000 in cash or checks as financial assistance by the President when he was mayor of Manila.

No matter how our public officials are trying to justify last week’s confirmed distribution of money to congressmen and local executives after meetings with Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Malacañang, this latest scandal surely smells of yet another government anomaly, if not corruption.

But granting there were indeed payoffs, says Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol, this cannot be considered a case of bribery in the absence of any imposed conditions. So says Acting Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera, who notes as well that “nobody is crying bribery from those who accepted it.”

Well, technically. Bribery, as perhaps the most common, and most visible, type of corruption, is defined as giving anything of value — whether in cash or in kind — to an official in exchange for an act or an omission in that official’s public functions.

In the PCIJ book, Investigating Corruption, bribes (citing Yale University professor Susan Rose-Ackerman) are paid primarily:

to get a benefit (in the case of procurement contracts; access to government-regulated goods, credit, foreign exchange, import and export license, or business permit; access to government services or subsidies; even purchase of state assets at a bargain-basement price)

to avoid costs, such as compliance with regulations, taxes, prosecution for illegal activities, delays, and red tape

for official positions (as in the case of school teachers paying principals one-month’s salary to get a teaching position)

While it can be argued that there were no favors asked as a quid pro quo, the “gift-giving” cannot simply be seen as an isolated act of kindness, far removed from the context of recent events. There was, after all, a recently filed and endorsed impeachment complaint against Arroyo that stemmed from the controversial, bribery-tainted national broadband network deal.

And what of her announcement to revive charter change initiatives this time anchored on federalism immediately after the Palace meetings? Wasn’t this a throwback to July 2005, when she first called for a shift to a parliamentary and federal form of government in her state of the nation address on the same day that an impeachment complaint was filed against her?

But let us grant Apostol and Devanadera their legal reasoning. Still, if not bribery, then clearly there’s patronage here. In the academic sense, dispensing patronage is considered a form of corruption though unfortunately, in the Philippine setting, it isn’t. Yet while the practice of dispensing government largesse is seen as socially acceptable, few would deny patronage’s corrosive influence on our politics.

From the same PCIJ book, patronage is described as:

entailing the distribution of government largesse — jobs, subsidized housing, public land, and other public goods and services — in exchange for political support. It is a way of acquiring, maintaining, and expanding political power by distributing economic benefits from the state and dispensing them to political allies, ward leaders, and followers.

Undeniably, patronage permeates Philippine politics, both at the national and local levels. The President, with his/her control of much of the economic resources of the state, remains the supreme dispenser of patronage in the country. But, for the sore lack of mature political parties, he/she has to rely on local politicians to govern and be elected. For instance, patronage in the form of prompt releases of pork-barrel funds has effectively been used to get congressmen to vote for administration-sponsored bills. During elections, patronage keeps the vote-getting machinery well oiled.

And in Arroyo’s particular case, patronage engineered the demise of the first impeachment case against her, which was attended by reports of fund releases to congressmen, appointments of members of their families and relatives to government positions, promises of projects and other favors.

Apparently, they are into it again.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 18th, 2007 and is filed under Governance, In the News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 people have left comments

[...] in the Philippines. Plus there’s a lot of political chaos going on, with accusations of bribery, impeachments complaints, calls for resignation and large scale corruption charges being hurled [...]

Explosion in Glorietta 2 « Babble On by Kelvin Lee wrote on October 20, 2007 - 1:29 am | Visit Link

This government is making the Filipinos as a stupid race! Now bribery, corruption and other evil forms of gaining influence, favor, etc. is but normal under political climate. This is simply because most politicians are now blinded by the amount they are illegally receiving (legal to them of course) and their moral fibers are of course again blinded by these plenty of money!

One thing is for sure, you could not take this money to heaven! President Arroyo is one of the most corrupt-ridden government the Philippines has ever had simply because she prevents officials from testifying and clear the anomalies. This perception has been built up through the years of very consistent, almost regular occurrence of news about the many anomalies.

aus_phil wrote on October 23, 2007 - 6:25 pm | Visit Link

According to surveys, the leaders of our nation are corrupt, in fact they’re at the top amongst the world’s leaders. But there is the other side of the story and
that is why IMF and World Bank loves to lend money to corrupt leaders. This book is not a conspiracy theory but stories of actual events with matching
references to back up the claims. I highly recommend this book: “A Game As Old As Empire” by Steven Hiatt.

In chapter 9 the Philippines is the main topic and it goes like this:

9. The Philippines, the World Bank, and the Race to the Bottom. “Developm ent” and “modernization” became code words for US efforts to prop up the
regime of President Ferdinand Marcos, with the World Bank serving as a conduit for the financing of Marcos’ dictators hip. Some 800 leaked documents
from the World Bank itself tell how the Bank financed martial law and made the Philippines the test case for its export-led development strategy based on
multinational corporations - with disastrous results for both democracy and economic development.

You may want to read the review here: http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/04/19/220745.php

ronald4ever wrote on November 28, 2007 - 10:35 pm | Visit Link

[...] that meeting in Malacañang, many were given P500,000-bags,” he said. Quickly, he clarified, “I am not saying all of the congressmen…a good number [...]

The Daily PCIJ » Blog Archive » JDV pushes impeachment bid vs Gloria on wings of bribe exposé wrote on November 24, 2008 - 11:50 pm | Visit Link

[...] from which congressmen could further enrich themselves. Last year, scandal broke out over “cash gifts” amounting to P500,000 each allegedly given to local officials and congressmen called to a [...]

The Daily PCIJ » Blog Archive » Congress on the dock wrote on November 25, 2008 - 10:53 am | Visit Link