When I was in college, my political science professor once asked us: “How will you define corruption?”
We in the class would quickly open our books on current issues and look for its meaning, rephrase it so that when the professor points at you, you will have a seemingly different meaning and gives an impression that you have that “in my own view” answer.
But experience will tell you even detailed, specific and realistic answers.
It was only when I became a journalist that I fully understood its meaning.
In the national level, corruption briefly means P728-million fertilizer scam, ZTE deal, and etc. But in the local level, corruption is:
-when you put your friend’s name in the payroll of the city sports office without his knowledge and the mayor allows it. That’s “foul” when you are trying to maintain or simply projecting a good reputation (Puri) to the public. Remember our headline: City sports head hit over ghost workers?
Corruption is when the number of job orders increases or doubles in a local government unit and you only see them during paydays (15-30).
Corruption is when people and respected groups in the city, like those in the Pampang market, begin to brand you, known to be a most outstanding councilor, as “matakaw,” and “buwaya.” It is when these groups start changing your slogan from “madaling maabot” to “hindi na maabot.”
Corruption means hiring 20 new employees to work at the city health office (CHO) while reassigning old CHO staff to “far flung” barangay health centers and demoted them from casual to job orders.
Corruption is when a private clinic is allowed to conduct smear tests to registered entertainment workers even to the point of revising/repealing an ordinance.
Corruption is when high ranking public officials, like city administrators, could afford to buy luxury cars (like BMW?).
Corruption is when you tolerate extortion. It is when you allow the “Jojo Group” and other individuals to extort P5 from every employee (as protection) fee from health studios (like Roman?) and from different bars at Fields Avenue. P5 multiplied by an estimated 10,000 bar girls and GROs, that’s P50,000; then multiply it by 30 days, you get P1.5 million. In one year, how much?
Corruption is when a councilor is in cahoots with high ranking city officials, like the City Treasurer, remitting only less than 10 percent of the road user’s and environmental fee, pocketing more than 90 percent (P2.97 million out of the P3.3million) of the collection. That is what you call a continuing “fertilizer scam” because in three years, collection could reach P106,920,000. “May 2 terms pa.”
More importantly, corruption is when you have an almost P1 billion budget for one year and you don’t have any significant accomplishment as a mayor.
