MEDIUM RARE
Jullie Y. Daza
“I’m shaking the tree!” announced typhoon Rody, but unlike the real typhoon Rolly where real trees were shaken and toppled, the great wind was not contented with being one typhoon, it had to be three in a row.
Quinta was not the fifth (as its name implied) but the 17th this year, followed by Rolly and next, Siony. For all the rainfall that has dumped oceans of water and with more to come, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, assigned the Herculean job of cleaning out the Augean stables, will not have an easy time ridding the government of corruption “in all agencies.” This assessment is not a reflection on the man’s capabilities but on the extent of the sickness that has wormed its way into “public service” for generations, dynasties, and through changes of government and Constitutions. How did it happen in a society proud of its educability and Christian upbringing? Unmitigated greed, unconscionable dishonesty, limitless opportunities, plainly no love of country? Or is it that the corrupt find themselves faced with more temptations than they can resist?
Typhoon Rody shaking the tree invokes a similar image of US President Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp” of corruption in Washington politics four years ago, when he was a first-time candidate for the White House. Corruption is not unique to the Philippine government. Much of the corruption that happens here starts out as small potatoes, though from small potatoes big potatoes grow. Just weeks ago a TV report showed how a security guard in the Bureau of Immigration owned a fleet of SUVs, a sprawl of properties, an overflowing bank account, and enough jewels to deck out more than one wife.
And yet, according to one government lawyer high up on the totem pole, it’s unfair to judge a man by his statement of assets and liabilities. Indeed, don’t judge the ambitious guard ‘cuz he could be working 80 hours a day. At least he didn’t swear to serve his constituents with a Bible at hand.
It took Hercules 30 years to clean the king’s stables for his oxen by diverting the waters of the river. Typhoon Rody has given Secretary Guevarra less than two years to sweep up the dead leaves fallen from the tree. ###