Philippines
is regarded as one of the most corrupt nations in the world. The country consistently scores low in the
Corruption Perception Index (CPI) prepared by Transparency International. For instance, in the year 2015,
Philippines ranked 95, which was lower than that of India, China and many
nations in the East Asian region. Corruption scandals in Philippines generally
involves bribery and graft. If we go by the categorization in Michael
Johnston’s Syndromes of Corruption, Philippines
falls under ‘Oligarchs and Clans’, where a relatively small number of
individuals use wealth, political power and violence to contend over major
stakes and to reward their followers. Following are some of the major
corruption scandals that Philippines has witnessed.
The first case is that of Lopez family of Iloilo. The family constantly used their capital to
buy political protection – through investing in candidates. This was not only
in the form of campaign funds but also making the family-owned newspaper the
propaganda paper. In return, for nearly three decades, under the presidential
patronage of Marcos and Quirino, this business conglomerate secured subsidized
government financing and dominated state regulated industries. This helped them
in accumulating public wealth and redistributing it with their followers. As of
now, Oscar Lopez and family is the 17th richest in Philippines.
The
second case is the textbook scam of
1998. Joseph Estrada, the then President appointed a distant cousin, Cecilia De
Castro as Presidential assistant. Estrada was forced to disavow Castro on the
wake of a 200 million peso textbook scam that Castro has allegedly taken part
in. The president later intervened in the investigation, which was one of the
main reasons for Estrada’s impeachment trial. Further inquiries proved Castro’s
active lobbying for the textbook contract.
The
third case is the recent graft charges
against the former Governor of Cavite province, Ireneo Maliksi. He is framed
for a 10 million peso scandal. Maliksi allegedly purchased medicines without
public bidding and the contract was awarded to a preferred supplier – Allied
Pharmaceutical Laboratories Inc. The Ombudsman also found out that Maliksi made
the purchase even 3 months before the first tranche of the money came.
All
the three instances involved cronyism as well as nepotism. Here the power is
neither clearly public nor private; but personal. Relatively small number of
elites and their extended personal clans were the major players. In case of
Philippines, the narrow definitions of corruption that only focuses on existing
legal rules would prove ineffective as most of the aforementioned corrupt
practices were not entirely illegal. For instance, Maliksi justified his
actions by citing an immediate need of medicines. So, the definition of
corruption should be widened to include illegitimate pursuit of a private
interest.
i)
Johnston, Michael. “Syndromes of Corruption:
Wealth, Power and Democracy”, Cambridge University Press, 2005
ii)
Johnston, Michael. “Corruption, Contention and Reform:
The Power of Deep Democratization”, Cambridge University Press, 2014
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