Reign of the Kleptocrats

by: Perry Diaz
PerryScope
January 19, 2007

The recent indictment of former Justice Secretary Hernando "Nani" Perez by the Sandiganbayan brings, once again, to the forefront of debate the issue of corruption in the top echelon of the government. Cabinet members, who are charged of implementing the policies and programs of the government, are supposed to represent the best and the brightest in government service. They are supposedly the models of good moral conduct to be emulated by their employees.

Those were days when government officials were the cream of the crop, and when government service had a mystical appeal to the idealists who truly wanted to make a difference. Indeed, what we used to know as "good governance" is now transformed into "kleptocracy." The public service-oriented government functionaries of yesteryears are gone. Although there are still those in government who are honest and incorruptible, what we have today is a breed of greedy opportunists who use their positions in government to enrich themselves. They are the "kleptocrats." Wikipedia defines "Kleptocracy" as a pejorative, informal term for a government that is primarily designed to sustain the personal wealth and political power of government officials and their cronies.

The Perez corruption case is one of the most despicable corruption cases because, as the chief guardian of the law, he brazenly broke the law that he swore to protect. He was responsible for the prosecution of law-breakers and now he is prosecuted for breaking the law. The Ombudsman, Merceditas Gutierrez, filed charges of graft, extortion and falsification of public documents against Perez -- her former boss -- in connection to the extortion charge of former Manila Congressman Mark Jimenez.

In 2003, Jimenez was extradited to the US where he was tried and convicted to 27 months in prison for tax evasion and conspiracy to defraud the US and commit election financing offenses. Upon his return to the Philippines after serving time in a US prison, Jimenez filed a complaint against Perez with the Ombudsman, claiming that Perez extorted $2 million from him in February 2001 in exchange for dropping him as co-accused in the plunder cased against deposed President Joseph Estrada.

The Jocelyn "Joc-Joc" Bolante case is another high-profile corruption case involving the fertilizer scam during the 2004 national elections. To avoid prosecution, Bolante disappeared for a while only to surface in the US in 2006. Upon his arrival in Los Angeles, he was arrested because of an expired visa. Bolante is now being held in a US jail while his case is pending in a court in Chicago. Coincident -- or was it? -- with the arrest of Bolante, President George Bush announced the escalation of the war on kleptocracy, denouncing "high-level corruption by senior officials, which is robbing the people of many poor nations of their future." Although he did not name the Philippines, he probably had the Philippines in mind when he said that.

In 2002, a report titled "The Eight-Point Comprehensive National Anti-Corruption Strategy" was released by then Ombudsman Aniano Desierto which stated that as of December 2001, "the high ranking officials with criminal charges filed in court included 62 armed forces and national police officials, 523 mayors, 18 governors, 6 congressmen, 2 ambassadors, 17 cabinet members, a former vice president, 2 former first ladies and a former president." I wonder if any of these high-ranking officials had been convicted?

In the same month, the report says, "the Office of the Ombudsman had a combined workload of 13,585 criminal and administrative cases. The number of cases disposed of totaled 9,324 out of which 1,374 was recommended for criminal prosecution, while administrative sanction was imposed on 390 cases." What is wrong with the picture? It's either the prosecution staff were incompetent or the accused were too smart for the prosecutors. Clearly, the wheel of justice is slow as a sloth.

In 2004, Transparency International released a list of "what is believed to be the ten most self-enriching leaders in recent years." In the order of the amount allegedly stolen in US dollars, they are: 1) former Indonesian President Suharto ($15 billion - $35 billion); 2) former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos ($5 billion - $10 billion); 3) former Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko ($5 billion); 4) former Nigerian President Sani Abacha ($2 billion - $5 billion); 5) former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic ($1 billion); 6) former Haitian President Jean-Claude Duvalier ($300 million to $800 million); 7) former Peruvian President Alberto Fumitory ($600 million); 8) former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazaarenko ($114 million - $200 million); 9) former Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Aleman ($100 million); and 10) former Philippine President Joseph Estrada ($78 million - $80 million). It is interesting to note that the Philippines is the only country with two of its presidents -- Marcos and Estrada -- on the list.

There was a story during the Marcos years about how Marcos selected the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces. There were two candidates who vied for the coveted position -- Gen. Fidel V. Ramos and Gen. Fabian Ver. Marcos interviewed Ramos first and at the end of the interview he asked Ramos, "What is ten divided by two?" Ramos quickly answered, "Five!" "Very good," Marcos said, "I'll let you know my decision tomorrow." Next, he interviewed Ver and asked the same question at the end of the interview, What is ten divided by two? Ver paused and scratched his head. Then he said, Five, sir! Five for you and five for me. Excellent, Marcos said, "the job is yours."

Today, the kleptocrats are having the grand "shopping spree" of their lives, filling their shopping carts as fast as they can because they don't know how long the "shopping spree" is going to last. It is sad that the "spirit of service" that predominated during commonwealth years and early period of the republic is gone. What we have today is kleptocratic governance which subordinates economic growth to the avaricious personal interests of the kleptocrats.

The Arroyo Gov't in ASEAN: More Deaths Than Health!

Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD)
2/F Doñ a Rosita Bldg, E. Rodriguez Ave. , Quezon City
Email: headphil@gmail.com
Press Release
13 January 2007

Leaders of Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD) and local representatives of health workers and health professionals joined mass actions being held in Cebu City today to protest Arroyo government's callousness and utter negligence of basic health services, while spending billions in hosting the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit.

"Again, the Arroyo regime is shamelessly promoting its mendicant agenda in the ASEAN while lying outright to the Filipino people." Decried Dr. Geneve E. Rivera, HEAD deputy secretary-general and leader of the health delegation. "Two of its principal agenda - the Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) and regional "anti-terrorism" - will cause more hardships for Filipinos in the long run."

According to HEAD, the MRA will open new doors for the overseas employment of licensed Filipino nurses by allowing them to work in other ASEAN countries without the need to acquire licenses from these countries. However, because the Arroyo government has done nothing to improve the status of Filipino nurses locally, the MRA will spur rather than stem the exodus of health professionals.

"Almost 90% of those who pass the Nursing Licensure Examination will seek employment abroad. That is roughly 30,000 nurses for 2006 alone." Stated Dr. Rivera. "With the MRA, Mrs. Arroyo is facilitating the exodus of Filipino nurses rather than offering viable alternatives for them to stay. Even if the MRA may provide some benefit for individual nurses, its negative impact on the Philippine health care delivery system is tremendous. And Mrs. Arroyo could hardly care less for as long as the remittances keep coming."

Also, the Arroyo regime wants to be at the forefront of the United States-led "War on Terror" in the region. Thus, it is pushing for regional "anti-terrorism", which is its favorite euphemism for its militarist and repressive programs that have led to the unabated killings and abductions of activists by its own armed security forces. Mrs. Arroyo has even allocated P10B for the so-called modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

But as Dr. Rivera pointed out, "That amount (P10B) is already the equivalent of the entire annual national health budget, which has not changed considerably over the last six years under the Arroyo regime. With Mrs. Arroyo, there is money for killing and harming Filipinos, but not for their health care and well-being!"

In fact, the spending on the ASEAN summit is about one-fourth of the entire Department of Health budget for 2006 and is even bigger than the entire budget allocated for parallel importation, the program meant to provide cheaper medicine for Filipinos. It is also bigger than the combined annual budget of the six biggest public hospitals under the DOH.

"What is obvious here is that the motive force behind Mrs. Arroyo's programs is not the welfare of the Filipino people but her own selfish needs as well as those of her neocolonial patron: US imperialism. Mrs. Arroyo wants to show to the Bush administration that contrary to their initial impression that she is an "unreliable ally", she will do everything to get their good graces." Concluded Dr. Rivera. "And everything means sacrificing the lives of Filipinos."

References: Dr. Geneve E. Rivera (Deputy Secretary-General – 0920 4603712)
Dr. Gene Alzona Nisperos (Secretary General - 0916 2145724)

6,000 Doctors Now Working Abroad as Nurses

By JENNY F. MANONGDO
Manila Bulletin
Wednesday, January 10, 2007

The number of doctors who left the country to become nurses abroad has reached 6,000 since year 2000 while 3,000 more are currently enrolled in nursing schools, latest estimates from Dr. Jimmy Galvez-Tan, former executive director of the University of the Philippines-National Institute of Health (UP-NIH) and professor of medicine in UP, revealed.

Dr. Galvez-Tan, who has monitored the trend of exodus among local health professionals, said that approximately 1,000 of them leave the country each year.

Mental health experts are also leaving.

Psychiatrists number only 400 across the country, yet some of them are also enticed to go abroad. Five of them have taken up nursing and one has left for abroad recently, the Philippine Psychiatric Association (PPA) said in a forum in Quezon City yesterday.

"The reality is, even the medical community does not put in that kind of importance. In the medical community, we have the specialty that is not very popular among medical students. Ob-Gyn, Surgery, Pediatrics is at par with us at some point. But how can you pit yourself against ob-gyn, surgery in practice, they earn very much," Dr. Lourdes Ladrido Ignacio, founding president of PPA, said.

"In Psychiatry, even if we spend that many hours, it’s not quite appreciated that every minute there is professional work. Every minute for a surgeon is professional work but it’s worth P20,000 right away," Dr. Ignacio added.

She said others have decided to leave due to economic reasons and many professional Filipinos go where their talents are also appreciated, she said.

Dr. Ignacio said psychiatrists are well-distributed in hospitals in Metro Manila but there is a shortage of psychiatrists in far-flung areas such as Cotabato and Surigao provinces.

At a separate forum earlier, child psychiatry experts revealed the same dilemma.

At present, only 41 child psychiatrists are active in their field supposedly catering to 36-million children below 19 years old that makes up 40 percent of the total population.

The Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists of the Philippines, Inc. (CAPPI) said there is one child psychiatrist in Cebu, and another in Bacolod and Iloilo. There are two child psychiatrists in Davao, one of whom is leaving for abroad soon.

PGH to Increase Rates Next Month

OR fee Union’s prime concern

By Christian V. Esguerra
Inquirer
Posted date: January 05, 2007

THE PHILIPPINE GENERAL HOSPITAL, the “teaching hospital” of the University of the Philippines system, is set to increase rates this year, raising concern from its own employees.

The PGH employees union said the planned increases, particularly those involving operating room and patient identification cards, could be too much for charity patients.

Union president Jossel Ebesate said a December announcement showed that the price of the “blue card,” a patient’s identification card, would rise from P7 to P15. Patients would also pay P1,500 in operating room (OR) fee, through the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. , the government health insurance program, said Ebesate, a nurse and the secretary general of the Alliance of Health Workers. He said the rate adjustment was scheduled to take effect next month.

Ebesate said the union was concerned primarily about the new fee for the operating room. Dr. Michael Tee, PGH spokesperson, said yesterday the adjustments were carefully studied by the hospital’s rates committee that included union members. The committee meets Jan. 9 to discuss the various concerns. “At the PGH, everything is democratic,” he added. Ebesate said even if the new OR fee was to be paid by Philhealth, many charity patients were not covered by it. This means they will have to pay the P1,500, “no small amount for indigent patients,” he said.

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Why Bar, Nursing Test Differ Widely

By Prof. Rene Luis M. Tadle and Atty. Cheryl L. Daytec-Yangot
[Prof. Rene Luis M. Tadle is president of the faculty of the College of Nursing, University of Santo Tomas. Atty. Cheryl L. Daytec-Yangot, M.PA., is the counsel for the Baguio Braves.]

The Manila Times
Special Report: NLE Leakage
Monday, October 30, 2006

Another reason why the Supreme Court’s handling of the bar leakage is not applicable to the nursing issue is that mercantile law does not deal with life, unlike all the subject areas of nursing. Mercantile Law deals with commerce—it deals with property.

To overstate the obvious, life is not the same as property. An error in the business of handling lives is irremediable. It can result in death or an existence akin to it. Bluntly put, there is no room for mistakes in nursing.

Unlike a mistake committed by the lawyer whose competence in mercantile law was not measured, that of a nurse cannot be appealed. This is not to say, of course, that lawyers have freedom to be lackadaisical in handling client’s properties. But it is a fact that there is an opportunity to correct the mistake of a lawyer who did not take an exam in mercantile law. Whereas there is no opportunity to correct the nurse’s mistake which precipitated a patient’s jumping off a bridge to his/her death, a tragedy that could have been avoided if the nurse were competent in psychiatric nursing.

The predicament the examinees now find themselves in is a creation of the PRC. Undoubtedly had it acted with the same pace and resoluteness as the Court did in 2003, the examinees would not be in a quandary and their misery would not have been unjustly prolonged.

At this point, the spinning out of their agony is nonnegotiable if some kinks have to be ironed out and some wrongs have to be righted. Otherwise, their competence and the integrity of the nursing profession would be sullied forever. Theirs is a monumental sacrifice—albeit forced on them—which the government must recognize with no less than a decisive and judicious resolution of their problem.

It is not only the credibility of the June 2006 examination that is the casualty of PRC’s mishandling of the leakage issue. The bigger casualty is the value of our people, their sense of right and wrong and their ability to discern heroism from villainy.

Lionizing the guilty

In this drama—or more appropriately, tragedy—someone has to be blamed. Sad to say, a mob has emerged to lynch the good guys and deify the bad guys.

Before the release of the exam result, the PRC was beleaguered. Afterward, a group of people on its “passed” list started lionizing the PRC officials. Their supposed virtues of magnanimity and sacrifice are being extolled by leaders of the Alliance of New Nurses (ANN).

Concerned individuals suspect that the ANN was organized by the PRC to launder its image and deflect the pointing fingers from it to others. To some, this is not hard to believe because the organization was born only after the release of the NLE result. Its leaders were never vocal against cheating before the release of the exam and even after. It is reported that a leader also reviewed with a certain now-notorious review center and finished the fraud-plagued Test 5 of the NLE in less than half an hour.

Although ANN members keep chanting, “Punish the guilty!” they pin guilt on the wrong people and are quick to absolve the PRC. Their efforts seem to be focused on generating public sympathy for the PRC officials and isolating those who remain relentless in their quest for truth and integrity.

In the recent ANN-led rally, the PRC officials, the two Board of Nursing members who leaked questions, and the owners of review centers identified to have propagated the leak were not among those people (which included these two writers) whose names were written on their streamers as the ones responsible for their woes.

Informed inside sources say that the ANN officers are frequent PRC visitors. The members of the alliance even serve as volunteer staff of the PRC, which bolsters doubts on its motives. When Board Chairman Eufemia Octaviano was confronted about this, she saw nothing wrong with it. This should not be unnerving anymore. After all, this is the same official who traveled with the owner of a review school—a perpetrator of the leakage—to Switzerland and saw nothing wrong with it. This is the same official who admitted that oath-taking fees amounting to millions of pesos are being deposited in BON members’ private accounts and saw nothing wrong with it.

Demonizing the heroes

The Baguio Braves, the petitioners in the Court of Appeals cases, the members of academe from St. Louis University, Eastern College, University of the Philippines, University of the East, Far Eastern University, University of Sto. Tomas and other reputable schools—whose only intention is to reclaim the virtues that were compromised in the PRC-authored fiasco—are the real heroes. Thankfully, the silent majority recognizes this.

But to the mob that is no longer ruled by discipline and reason but by emotion, they are the scoundrels. Government officials who point out PRC’s errors are pilloried. It is reported that in blogsites, members of the mob even use obscene language. They have gone as far as calling the whistleblowers liars. It is alarming to watch these people turn a blind eye to cheating as long as they get what they want. And except for the second coursers, they have not even begun their careers.

The older nurses who are now in their 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, some of whom reject the position that all the examinees must retake, are disturbed that these young people have forgotten the virtues of Florence Nightingale so early.

One government official says that the mob is entitled to a wide berth of understanding when they praise PRC—the creator of the disaster which claimed them as victims—to high heavens and condemn those who are only trying to restore the dignity of a profession and of the Filipino people.

“It could be the voice of desperation speaking,” the official says. “They may not realize that they are barking up the wrong tree.”

The Brazilian philosopher and educator Paulo Freire would call the phenomenon internalization of oppression. By clinging to the oppressor for their salvation, they have become their own oppressors. How sad.

A story of defeat, a story of triumph

After all is said and done, we may recover the integrity of the nursing profession and expunge the stigma that taints the June 2006 batch. But will we ever recapture our sense of what is right and what is wrong, who is right and who is wrong, what is heroism and what is villainy?

The nursing fiasco is a heartbreaking story about the corruption of virtues and an institution that should preserve them, and the extreme price which the innocent have to unjustly pay. But because there are those among us dedicated to retrieving what we lost, because there are those among us who value truth more than comfort, it is also an inspiring story about enduring dedication to integrity and honor and the determination to live by them.

It is a story of defeat as much as it is a story of triumph. It is a story of destruction as much as it is a story of redemption. ###