The recent flooding of Metro Manila exposed a whole can of worms. Reports of billions of pesos lost to corruption in ghost, substandard and incomplete flood control projects continue to dominate the headlines and senate-congressional inquiries uncovering the rot in government procurement. Of course, there has been continuing exposés in which politicians received campaign contributions from contractors.

But let’s try to understand why flooding occurs. Other than climate change, continuing to build and cement over huge tracts of land in the name of progress, poor urban planning and plain and simple corruption, there’s the issue of poor waste management, which leads to clogging of our drainage systems.

We’re not talking about district engineers here. The people who dispose of their garbage improperly which leads to waste being carried into drains and canals are just as guilty.

We, Filipinos are bound by cultural/social constructs such as family-centeredness and utang ng loob, which have their good and bad effects. We are very conscious of our familial boundaries which make us think purely in terms of our own. Thus, we keep ourselves and our homes clean and spic-and-span, but once outside the home, everything else don’t seem to matter. We litter carelessly since it’s not our place. We simply don’t care about the external environment. Hence, garbage piles up and come the rains, it’s swept away into our waterways, clogging them and making them shallow such that rainwater has nowhere to go but spill over into our streets and homes.

Yes, it is deeply karmic, but we can’t seem to connect our other actions (careless littering and improper garbage disposal) to the misery we experience with flooding, not to mention the mounting cases of leptospirosis cases and deaths.

A sense of community is missing, which runs counter to another Filipino trait, bayanihan. We can’t seem to see beyond familial ties, which in these desperate times for many, seem to be the only lifeline. We try to extend our sense of family by recruiting more influential persons by way of making them kumpares and kumadres, expecting favors to be given since they are “family.”

When we become more successful, such as being elected to a government position, we immediately think of putting family members, relatives and other persons we have “utang ng loob” to, in lower ranking government jobs, no matter if they are not competent or qualified to be appointed. Others are given these jobs so the sitting official can extract more loyalty and “utang ng loob” from them.

Thus, our bureaucracies, from the lowliest clerk to high-ranking officials, are filled with incompetent and unqualified people who look out only for themselves and their families, and of course, their padrinos who put them there. The same thing happens when families pass their elective positions to family members, creating political dynasties.

These unqualified and incompetent bureaucrats now reign over us, imposing unnecessary layers of requirements that in turn force us to resort to shortcuts and bribery, just so we can continue to do business. Without the necessary competency, their judgments are unsound and may lead to wastage and impede national progress, such as implementing poorly designed flood control projects. It does come full circle, doesn’t it?

Over time, with each new head of agency putting in his/her own relatives and cronies in their respective departments, we now have a convoluted patchwork of inefficient and ignorant bureaucrats in place.

Bureaucracy is supposed to be a place where people of merit should be hired, but now, it is chock-full of kamag-anaks and lackeys who thrive on corruption and continuing patronage.

Instead of a meritocracy, we now have a kleptocracy/“bulok-cracy.” So, how should this be dealt with? First order of things should be a thorough review of the qualifications of each appointee. If found unqualified, toss them out. There should quite a number of these cases, which is easier done due to lack of qualifications to begin with.

The second step is to order a review of performance of the remaining staff. Any underperforming/abusive/corrupt employee should be placed on probation and dismissed if still unrepentant.

These measures can only be done by someone who does not practice patronage politics. These days, politicians who are right-thinking are as rare as white crows. Nonetheless, mayors like Vico Sotto, Benjamin Magalong and Joy Belmonte are blazing the trail for competent and moral-minded governance. More and more mayors are joining the Mayors for Good Governance movement recently.

It seems like it has to start from the grassroots level to effect a change in our mindset and set the nation on the right course. Perhaps Leni Robredo was right in running for mayor of Naga. We need to see well-run local governments take over the country one LGU at a time.

Enough of Kamag-Anak Inc.!