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Monday, February 18, 2008

Why are we so corrupt?

When did it start?

I think, I guess it started during the Marcos Presidency, that far, as I can remember.

I guess we started during that time, the culture of corruption, and the little by little loss of moral values of our people. It is now hard to the right thing as almost everything has a tag price. The culture of kleptocracy has invaded the common tao, courtesy of the Marcoses, and now GMA.

The greatest legacy they left to the Filipinos: kleptocracy, loss of decency, loss of moral compass, loss of delicadeza.

Kong ano ang nakikita ng bata sa nakakatanda…..

My first hand experience

A few years back we got equipment donated for a non-profit project in the Visayas from a charity donor overseas. To release the equipment, it took us 6 months because I did not want to pay “lagay” to all the tables in Customs in Manila. People there would open their drawers every time somebody approaches them for signatures or what. I relented with disgust to the corruption, and had to bring several hundred bills to drop to those drawers so that our equipment can be released. The modus operandi is you are required to pass on more than a dozen of tables for you know what!

Another is with LTO, I am sure that if your car have been smoked tested which should happen every time you renew your annual registration – that you also paid “lagay”; it has become almost a standard practice. I hated it, but what can I do? I do not want to be bothered with waiting, complaints etc. We have precious time to manage, hay…

Another is annual business permit renewals, etc. etc. You have to make “lagay” to make things move.

What can you do?

To do away with all this corrupt practices, I pay a fixer to do all the things that I needed to do when it comes to dealing with government agencies. Pay a croc to deal with crocs. The advantages are enormous:

1. You save a lot of money for “lagays”.
2. Processing is not taking decades, waiting, sitting, complaining etc.
3. You save yourself from doing the “corrupt” things yourself.
4. Most importantly you have not wasted your time in dealing with government agencies.