Graft without corruption

Ike Señeres

 AS it is supposed to be, there is supposed to be a symbiotic relationship between graft and corruption, akin to a cause and effect relationship or a stimulus and response paradigm.

Corruption is supposed to be the cause, and graft is supposed to be the effect. Looking at it in another way, graft is supposed to be the stimulus, and graft is supposed to be the response. That is the reason why there is supposed to be a big difference between bribery and extortion.

As it is supposed to be, bribery would happen if a public official is offered or given a reward in exchange for a favor that would benefit the briber (the one offering the bribe). In this sense, graft happens when the public official accepts the bribe.

Distinguishing between the two however, it is the act of bribery that constitutes the act of corruption, and not the act of accepting the bribe. In other words, it is the giver of the bribe who is the corruptor and it is the acceptor of the bribe who is the grafter.

In agricultural terms, grafting is a technique wherein the tissues of one plant are inserted into another, so that these two sets of tissues will grow together. In figurative terms therefore, grafting in the government happens when outside influence is inserted inside the bureaucracy, where it will take root as if it is a natural part of the system.

In this sense, the grafted practices from the outside become the corrupt practices in the inside. Once inside, it behaves like cancer, as it affects all the other organs of the organization. In a manner of speaking, it could be said that bribery is an evil action that comes from the outside, but extortion is an evil action that comes from the inside. There is no other way to explain it, because extortion seems to happen when the public officials inside the bureaucracy are already so corrupt on their own steam, so much so that they no longer need to be corrupted. In other words, graft has become systemic in their organizations, perhaps already reaching epidemic proportions.

Whether we like it or not, the meanings of words in our languages would change, as the usage of these words would also change in the course of time. In this sense, we could say that the meanings of graft and corruption have already changed, so much so that these two words have practically become synonymous with each other. Despite the changes in the meanings of these words however, we basically know what we mean when we use these words any way that we choose to. In other words, when the New York Times would say that the Philippines is the most corrupt country in the whole world, what they actually mean is that we are the most graftidden (or grafted) country in the whole world. Since we certainly do not enjoy that rather embarrassing distinction, we should now take concrete steps to reverse that accusation, and the best way to start is to strike at the roots of the problem.

Admittedly, graft and corruption is systemic, and the only remedy to that is the programmatic approach. Graft and corruption is just like the barnacles in an old ship. You could not just paint over it, you have to chip away and scrape away all the barnacles before you could paint it over. And you could not just chip and scrape anywhere you want at random, because you have to be systematic too, as you are programmatic. And just like the barnacles, you have to paint the boat as quickly as you can, otherwise the barnacles would come back as fast as they could, and you would have the same problem all over again. Continuing with this analogy, you just have to keep on chipping, scraping and painting, otherwise the barnacles will not only keep on sticking, they will also keep on growing and multiplying in the ship’s hull.

In order to prevent the systemic recurrence and growth of the barnacles in the ship’s hull, there is a need for a maintenance program that will keep the ship’s hull clean. This is what I mean by programmatic. Of course, in order for the maintenance program to be sustainable, it has to be supported by a policy declaration. On the practical side, each and every process of chipping, scraping and painting should be treated as a project, that way it could be funded, and its results could be evaluated. That is also the way that we should deal with graft and corruption, to have policies, programs and projects that would strike at the roots of the problem, instead of just issuing press releases and mouthing slogans that would amount to nothing. And just as the volumes of barnacles that are removed could be measured in terms of kilos or pounds, it should also be reported how many corrupt officials have been removed already.

Some would argue that graft and corruption are really victimless crimes, and it’s not really all that bad, because no one really dies. While that may be true in the sense that no one really gets killed on the spot, that is not really true when we start counting the numbers of those who die from poverty and hunger, two social problems that are aggravated by the problem of graft and corruption. Add to that the numbers who die from murder and homicide, clearly not victimless crimes that are in turn caused by the poverty and hunger of people who are driven to commit crimes out of desperation. Needless to say, the problem of crime in this country is also systemic, and the only solution to it is a programmatic solution that is backed up by solid policies and projects. The key of course are sincere and dedicated public officials who are driven by commitment and political will.

Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Rogelio Singson is one such public official who has successfully weakened the incidence of corruption in his agency. What he did is a classic example of how to deal with corruption in a programmatic way. Given the fact that the perpetuators of graft and corruption are still inside and outside the DPWH, he has successfully changed the policies so that their evil acts could not prosper. Because of what he did, the bidding procedures in his agency are now transparent, and it became very difficult for the evil perpetuators to continue with their old ways. It is no coincidence that Secretary Singson is a devout Christian who practices what he preaches. In other words, there is no dichotomy between his faith and his actions. How I wish that there would be more public officials who are like him.

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