Imperative 43: I-Congress Part 2 of 3: Identifying root causes of corruption should lead to preventive solutions
The list of corruption cases large and small as reported by Philippine media goes on and on from 1950s to present. Unfortunately, what cases 'graduated' to the courts form a tiny part of the real scale of the poverty-creating culture. For a quick estimate of the most recent (early 2000s) scale of Philippine corruption, consider 40-50% of P3+ trillion in yearly State budgets going to the pockets of a few politicians and their 'facilitator squads', with 'loose change' going to some payment-processing bureaucrats. What drives such unspeakable and unending corruption? Here are the major systemic causes (author's conclusions based on historical studies):
a) Too few contract planners and approvers. Incumbent political parties appoint a few directors and executives in State agencies and corporations. All are expected to contribute to the next election campaign kitty thru contractors' commissions. Philippine elections cost billions of pesos per national level candidate, and more billions in party funds for village officials' voter payouts at P500 or so per voter, plus giveaways in kind. To build up the massive re-election budgets plus 'pocket money', the directors and executives don't even have to engage in 'hard sell', for contractors eagerly offer large commissions as traditional rewards for 'facilitation' services', with an eye on even more lucrative contracts in the future. The system starts when politicians and bureaucrats prepare yearly budgets, with 'friendly' contractors duly informed. Everything undergoes the legal process but the actual bid winners are determined in 'bottle rich' club meetings between politicians' proxies and main contractors. The company that advances the most cash is sure to win. At times, bidders rig the bid to choose a 'winner', then all losers share the sub-contracts, with the prospect of getting their 'winner' turn in future contracts.
b) Entrenched corruption systems available to any winning political party. Winning political parties need to appoint just a few cronies with the right 'legal qualifications' to handle directorships in certain State agencies and corporations. The appointees then plan and implement billion-peso projects. Everyone else within the lower bureaucracy has to cooperate or 'get blind' to avoid getting fired or be subjected to harassment or freezing of rank if armed with civil service rights. Incumbent majority party support thereby translates to unchallenged bills, laws, programs and budget releases to implement party plans. Implementing contractors deliver suitcases of untraceable cash to involved politicians' relatives or trusted 'arrangers' to complete the transactions. Very few politicians are actually corrupt 'big time' but the honest majority are too powerless against the corrupt cabals' well-paid squads of lawyers and judges. Furthermore, contractors all know from long practice how to deliver 'facilitation fees' without any iota of evidence.
c) State as 'milking cow' culture. Since colonial times (1500s to 1890s) and up to recent times, a major percentage of Philippine colonial officials and republican politicians appeared to consider State posts as sources of great fortunes. These days the 'tradition' appears just as strong, as revealed by media and congressional investigations of billion-peso post-budget insertions by certain politicians and bureaucrats. During Spanish times, profitable State posts were up for sale to the highest bidder. The winner thereafter created all sorts of business and social prohibitions, and then demanded bribes for grant of exemptions. When 'all-native' regimes ruled (1946-present), both politicians and contractors considered 'oiling commissions' as standard for award of contracts. All such arrangements created political elites which in most cases were allied with certain business elites. State can indeed be a generous 'milking cow'.
d) 'Poverty of masses' as corruption excuse. During election campaign period, the candidate has to entertain crowds of poor people seeking help. Requests for jobs and budgets for illnesses, hospitalization and medicines, basic food, burials, court cases, farm bankruptcies, fire or typhoon damage, and hosts of other common tragedies suffered by poor masses all need to be addressed. Once the candidate wins, such needy crowds expand twenty times or more. Lawmakers are supposed to only make laws, but 3rd World bottom masses need all the help that anyone can give. Budgets for pre and post elections thereby bloat to the millions or billions of pesos per candidate, and the effective ways to recover such investments is thru State contractors' commissions and setup of lucrative clan business monopolies based on State franchises and rights of use. Such 'Robin Hood' tradition hence becomes a necessity for 3rd World societies' politicians. The Philippine bottom masses understand this, so only the middle classes (a mere 10% or so of population) criticize the 'tradition'. Furthermore, said bottom masses comprising some 66% of population who are Primary or Elementary level cannot be expected to vote based on complex political and economic issues presented by candidates. Candidates' popularity (movie stars, media names), peer pressure, promises of future help thru clan contacts, regionalism, tribalism, religious 'solidarity', 'gifts' in pesos and in kind, the belief that political dynasties 'can help more', and the tradition of mutual help among supporters of political parties all become the bases for winning votes. Given such conditions, one may even view corruption in 3rd World societies as a necessary tool to satisfy politicians' 'Robin Hood' desires.
What therefore should be the logical solutions for adoption by a corruption-slaying Philippine Mega Co-op Movement? Here's some of several options:
a) State planning and contracts approval have to be performed by an elected referendum body (Internet Congress) composed of 60,000 or so top corporate and sectoral 'names' (all retired). I-Congress may form itself into committees of thousands voted by the membership to study particular issues (including budgets and contracts awarding). Each committee shall then study an issue (thru website discussions) and formulate courses of action which will then be presented to the entire membership for voting thru the central Congressional website. An action proposal that wins the most votes becomes law. Bidding of contracts above P5 million should undergo the same process. For lesser amounts (say town and city projects), a committee of thousands whose members will be affected by the contract shall vote on the winning bid. The scheme thereby ensures corruption-proof State management by a 'perpetual referendum' of the country's top skills. The corruption-slaying factor: no contractor would be able to afford bribing tens of thousands of committee members out of 60,000 approvers voting thru the internet who all built up their honest names over long decades.
For their part, old-style election candidates who spend millions to get a job that pays less than a hundred thousand monthly (which reveals a desire to earn billions out of future contract commissions) will prefer to opt out of the election race. Other old-style candidates who plan on using State positions to obtain lucrative State contracts (franchises, power to sell State lands, privileges to operate State monopolies, etc.), should also opt out, for they will have to persuade (bribe) at least half plus one of 60,000 'electronic approvers' to do so. For the same reason, political dynasties will end when current 'clans in high places' will all need to persuade majority of 60,000 I-Congressmen to approve said clans' interlocking projects that benefit only clan members. 'Politics as profession' will effectively be ended thru corruption-proof referendum rule by a meritocracy. The current People's Initiative law whereby 12% of voters may repeal or change any existing law should be one option for such political restructuring. If impractical, the machinery for constitutional change should have to start operating.
b) I-Congress members must be management-level corporate and sectoral retirees, such as former directors and top officers of corporations large to small (at 60% of total), top or mid-level officials of the biggest religious and civic organizations, federations of employee associations, directors of professional associations (engineers, accountants, architects, scientists, etc.), top-tier State bureaucrats (national and local levels), leading media and NGO officials and heads of other leading social organizations. All should have retired within the past one to 15 years (from age 60), to serve within a five-year period. Voting by the masses (thru secure websites) should be done on place of birth basis to 'force' city skills into rural areas, thus make government accessible to all the people. Filipinos abroad may just as easily vote thru the internet. Vote counting and official approval should be at town and city district level for anyone to check the veracity of his votes thru secure and open websites. Such system of 'direct democracy' will end complaints of the Commission on Election members (being all appointed by the President) too often 'enabling' majority party candidates to dominate all elective posts.
c) Compensation for I-Congressmen should be based on average monthly compensation for employee masses because as top-level retirees, all I-Congress members should be earning out of large pensions, stock investments, family businesses, and rises in value of their real estate, their hoards of gold and jewelries, and other properties. As volunteers for the country's good, I-Congressmen should nevertheless earn such stipend to pay for expenses incident to their occasional 'eyeball' discussions with colleagues and constituents in city or provincial venues especially for the benefit of constituents who have no internet access. I-Congress members' main benefit shall consist of expansion of their business and professional contacts (local and abroad) incident to performance of their duties, as well as widened friendship nets, people's respect, and the enhanced 'names' they will bequeath to their familial generations. They may be issued a monthly stipend of a few thousand pesos per member, the billion peso total just a drop in the bucket compared to some P1.5 trillion (50% of State expenditures) lost to corruption each year. Stipend rates can rise based on rises in yearly GDP rates. Furthermore, the new I-Congress facilitating all Mega Co-op wealth-making systems herein presented should multiply State tax incomes and budgets ten times or so, making 'referendum style' State management a wise investment indeed!
d) Elections for I-Congressmen should be 'all local' (town and city based), using local computer facilities the results of which are open for everyone's viewing. When voting is done thru relatively small batches (as described), checking for errors and dishonesty is facilitated. Voters should develop the courage to display their choices to prevent undesirables from winning thru manipulation of results. The scheme further avoids old-style 'cheating' charges after every election, as well as allay suspicions of payouts to national level Election officials (Presidential or majority party appointees) to rig votes.
e) Such 'referendum rule' by a meritocracy should create corporate style State management at maximum efficiency. I-Congressmen will need no expensive buildings and huge personnel and operations budgets. They don't have to bodily form quorums, engage in wasteful verbal tussles, grandstanding or 'filibustering" (objecting merely to delay proceedings) and be limited by long vacations to determine what laws will benefit the people. They need not engage in confidential caucuses to advance party interest above all, for no parties exist. Ease of communication thru the internet will enable any citizen to popularize his views on specific problems, as well as appropriate solutions and debating points thru Congressmen's personal websites and in media outlets for inclusion in Congressional discussions. In effect, the Philippine political system becomes a direct democracy, replacing the country's 73-year old corruption-tainted republican system which in reality is a 'democracy of the elite.'
f) To speed up Congressional discussions, an I-Congress Secretariat should simplify and compile all proposals from I-Congressmen. Members thereafter conduct 'silent internet debates', their cyber arguments unburdened by party interests, since parties cannot exist where discussion topics endlessly change. For complex technical issues, members may vote to hire expert consultant groups from Academe, corporate, engineering and other sectors. Engineering bidders should post their detailed technical plans, quality references and costing estimates in their websites, which will serve as the only bases for the decisions of 60,000 I-Congressmen. At such numbers, the nation's management will be handled by thousands of production-oriented former top engineers, specialists, scientists, technologists, accountants, purchasing managers, agribusiness and industrial experts, corporate suppliers, corporate directors, etc. instead of the old system whereby government is largely run by lawyers who are trained and experienced in regulation of people, businesses and just about everything else, mass based productivity and wealth-creation being furthest from their minds.
g) For a political, legal, social or economic issue that does not win a convincing vote (say 60% of total), the issue gets to bottom schedule, to be resurrected later if additional arguments crop up. I-Congress should ensure the smooth flow of project implementation, as no old-style 'temporary restraining order' by the Courts will be used by bid losers to delay or stifle projects. All laws and regulations submitted by I-Congress to the Executive branch for implementation should be monitored by Congressional committees which will ensure that consequent State contract bids will be presented to appropriate I-Congress committees that will conduct the bidding process. Since almost all Executive functions are performed thru contracting and purchasing, the Congressional bidding process will ensure that old-style corruption by national and local executive officials will be curtailed for all time.
a) Too few contract planners and approvers. Incumbent political parties appoint a few directors and executives in State agencies and corporations. All are expected to contribute to the next election campaign kitty thru contractors' commissions. Philippine elections cost billions of pesos per national level candidate, and more billions in party funds for village officials' voter payouts at P500 or so per voter, plus giveaways in kind. To build up the massive re-election budgets plus 'pocket money', the directors and executives don't even have to engage in 'hard sell', for contractors eagerly offer large commissions as traditional rewards for 'facilitation' services', with an eye on even more lucrative contracts in the future. The system starts when politicians and bureaucrats prepare yearly budgets, with 'friendly' contractors duly informed. Everything undergoes the legal process but the actual bid winners are determined in 'bottle rich' club meetings between politicians' proxies and main contractors. The company that advances the most cash is sure to win. At times, bidders rig the bid to choose a 'winner', then all losers share the sub-contracts, with the prospect of getting their 'winner' turn in future contracts.
b) Entrenched corruption systems available to any winning political party. Winning political parties need to appoint just a few cronies with the right 'legal qualifications' to handle directorships in certain State agencies and corporations. The appointees then plan and implement billion-peso projects. Everyone else within the lower bureaucracy has to cooperate or 'get blind' to avoid getting fired or be subjected to harassment or freezing of rank if armed with civil service rights. Incumbent majority party support thereby translates to unchallenged bills, laws, programs and budget releases to implement party plans. Implementing contractors deliver suitcases of untraceable cash to involved politicians' relatives or trusted 'arrangers' to complete the transactions. Very few politicians are actually corrupt 'big time' but the honest majority are too powerless against the corrupt cabals' well-paid squads of lawyers and judges. Furthermore, contractors all know from long practice how to deliver 'facilitation fees' without any iota of evidence.
c) State as 'milking cow' culture. Since colonial times (1500s to 1890s) and up to recent times, a major percentage of Philippine colonial officials and republican politicians appeared to consider State posts as sources of great fortunes. These days the 'tradition' appears just as strong, as revealed by media and congressional investigations of billion-peso post-budget insertions by certain politicians and bureaucrats. During Spanish times, profitable State posts were up for sale to the highest bidder. The winner thereafter created all sorts of business and social prohibitions, and then demanded bribes for grant of exemptions. When 'all-native' regimes ruled (1946-present), both politicians and contractors considered 'oiling commissions' as standard for award of contracts. All such arrangements created political elites which in most cases were allied with certain business elites. State can indeed be a generous 'milking cow'.
d) 'Poverty of masses' as corruption excuse. During election campaign period, the candidate has to entertain crowds of poor people seeking help. Requests for jobs and budgets for illnesses, hospitalization and medicines, basic food, burials, court cases, farm bankruptcies, fire or typhoon damage, and hosts of other common tragedies suffered by poor masses all need to be addressed. Once the candidate wins, such needy crowds expand twenty times or more. Lawmakers are supposed to only make laws, but 3rd World bottom masses need all the help that anyone can give. Budgets for pre and post elections thereby bloat to the millions or billions of pesos per candidate, and the effective ways to recover such investments is thru State contractors' commissions and setup of lucrative clan business monopolies based on State franchises and rights of use. Such 'Robin Hood' tradition hence becomes a necessity for 3rd World societies' politicians. The Philippine bottom masses understand this, so only the middle classes (a mere 10% or so of population) criticize the 'tradition'. Furthermore, said bottom masses comprising some 66% of population who are Primary or Elementary level cannot be expected to vote based on complex political and economic issues presented by candidates. Candidates' popularity (movie stars, media names), peer pressure, promises of future help thru clan contacts, regionalism, tribalism, religious 'solidarity', 'gifts' in pesos and in kind, the belief that political dynasties 'can help more', and the tradition of mutual help among supporters of political parties all become the bases for winning votes. Given such conditions, one may even view corruption in 3rd World societies as a necessary tool to satisfy politicians' 'Robin Hood' desires.
What therefore should be the logical solutions for adoption by a corruption-slaying Philippine Mega Co-op Movement? Here's some of several options:
a) State planning and contracts approval have to be performed by an elected referendum body (Internet Congress) composed of 60,000 or so top corporate and sectoral 'names' (all retired). I-Congress may form itself into committees of thousands voted by the membership to study particular issues (including budgets and contracts awarding). Each committee shall then study an issue (thru website discussions) and formulate courses of action which will then be presented to the entire membership for voting thru the central Congressional website. An action proposal that wins the most votes becomes law. Bidding of contracts above P5 million should undergo the same process. For lesser amounts (say town and city projects), a committee of thousands whose members will be affected by the contract shall vote on the winning bid. The scheme thereby ensures corruption-proof State management by a 'perpetual referendum' of the country's top skills. The corruption-slaying factor: no contractor would be able to afford bribing tens of thousands of committee members out of 60,000 approvers voting thru the internet who all built up their honest names over long decades.
For their part, old-style election candidates who spend millions to get a job that pays less than a hundred thousand monthly (which reveals a desire to earn billions out of future contract commissions) will prefer to opt out of the election race. Other old-style candidates who plan on using State positions to obtain lucrative State contracts (franchises, power to sell State lands, privileges to operate State monopolies, etc.), should also opt out, for they will have to persuade (bribe) at least half plus one of 60,000 'electronic approvers' to do so. For the same reason, political dynasties will end when current 'clans in high places' will all need to persuade majority of 60,000 I-Congressmen to approve said clans' interlocking projects that benefit only clan members. 'Politics as profession' will effectively be ended thru corruption-proof referendum rule by a meritocracy. The current People's Initiative law whereby 12% of voters may repeal or change any existing law should be one option for such political restructuring. If impractical, the machinery for constitutional change should have to start operating.
b) I-Congress members must be management-level corporate and sectoral retirees, such as former directors and top officers of corporations large to small (at 60% of total), top or mid-level officials of the biggest religious and civic organizations, federations of employee associations, directors of professional associations (engineers, accountants, architects, scientists, etc.), top-tier State bureaucrats (national and local levels), leading media and NGO officials and heads of other leading social organizations. All should have retired within the past one to 15 years (from age 60), to serve within a five-year period. Voting by the masses (thru secure websites) should be done on place of birth basis to 'force' city skills into rural areas, thus make government accessible to all the people. Filipinos abroad may just as easily vote thru the internet. Vote counting and official approval should be at town and city district level for anyone to check the veracity of his votes thru secure and open websites. Such system of 'direct democracy' will end complaints of the Commission on Election members (being all appointed by the President) too often 'enabling' majority party candidates to dominate all elective posts.
c) Compensation for I-Congressmen should be based on average monthly compensation for employee masses because as top-level retirees, all I-Congress members should be earning out of large pensions, stock investments, family businesses, and rises in value of their real estate, their hoards of gold and jewelries, and other properties. As volunteers for the country's good, I-Congressmen should nevertheless earn such stipend to pay for expenses incident to their occasional 'eyeball' discussions with colleagues and constituents in city or provincial venues especially for the benefit of constituents who have no internet access. I-Congress members' main benefit shall consist of expansion of their business and professional contacts (local and abroad) incident to performance of their duties, as well as widened friendship nets, people's respect, and the enhanced 'names' they will bequeath to their familial generations. They may be issued a monthly stipend of a few thousand pesos per member, the billion peso total just a drop in the bucket compared to some P1.5 trillion (50% of State expenditures) lost to corruption each year. Stipend rates can rise based on rises in yearly GDP rates. Furthermore, the new I-Congress facilitating all Mega Co-op wealth-making systems herein presented should multiply State tax incomes and budgets ten times or so, making 'referendum style' State management a wise investment indeed!
d) Elections for I-Congressmen should be 'all local' (town and city based), using local computer facilities the results of which are open for everyone's viewing. When voting is done thru relatively small batches (as described), checking for errors and dishonesty is facilitated. Voters should develop the courage to display their choices to prevent undesirables from winning thru manipulation of results. The scheme further avoids old-style 'cheating' charges after every election, as well as allay suspicions of payouts to national level Election officials (Presidential or majority party appointees) to rig votes.
e) Such 'referendum rule' by a meritocracy should create corporate style State management at maximum efficiency. I-Congressmen will need no expensive buildings and huge personnel and operations budgets. They don't have to bodily form quorums, engage in wasteful verbal tussles, grandstanding or 'filibustering" (objecting merely to delay proceedings) and be limited by long vacations to determine what laws will benefit the people. They need not engage in confidential caucuses to advance party interest above all, for no parties exist. Ease of communication thru the internet will enable any citizen to popularize his views on specific problems, as well as appropriate solutions and debating points thru Congressmen's personal websites and in media outlets for inclusion in Congressional discussions. In effect, the Philippine political system becomes a direct democracy, replacing the country's 73-year old corruption-tainted republican system which in reality is a 'democracy of the elite.'
f) To speed up Congressional discussions, an I-Congress Secretariat should simplify and compile all proposals from I-Congressmen. Members thereafter conduct 'silent internet debates', their cyber arguments unburdened by party interests, since parties cannot exist where discussion topics endlessly change. For complex technical issues, members may vote to hire expert consultant groups from Academe, corporate, engineering and other sectors. Engineering bidders should post their detailed technical plans, quality references and costing estimates in their websites, which will serve as the only bases for the decisions of 60,000 I-Congressmen. At such numbers, the nation's management will be handled by thousands of production-oriented former top engineers, specialists, scientists, technologists, accountants, purchasing managers, agribusiness and industrial experts, corporate suppliers, corporate directors, etc. instead of the old system whereby government is largely run by lawyers who are trained and experienced in regulation of people, businesses and just about everything else, mass based productivity and wealth-creation being furthest from their minds.
g) For a political, legal, social or economic issue that does not win a convincing vote (say 60% of total), the issue gets to bottom schedule, to be resurrected later if additional arguments crop up. I-Congress should ensure the smooth flow of project implementation, as no old-style 'temporary restraining order' by the Courts will be used by bid losers to delay or stifle projects. All laws and regulations submitted by I-Congress to the Executive branch for implementation should be monitored by Congressional committees which will ensure that consequent State contract bids will be presented to appropriate I-Congress committees that will conduct the bidding process. Since almost all Executive functions are performed thru contracting and purchasing, the Congressional bidding process will ensure that old-style corruption by national and local executive officials will be curtailed for all time.
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