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THE
raging controversy over alleged commissions sought by
certain officials for the aborted $329-million national
broadband network (NBN) deal has sparked
soul-searching—and new challenges—to business.
A day
after the Makati Business Club (MBC) was hit by
contradictory positions over leading members, some
business leaders claimed they were implicitly threatened
with retaliation by an unidentified Cabinet member.
ANC
quoted Phinma’s Ramon del Rosario Jr. as saying that
after the MBC’s critical statement was issued on
Tuesday, they got word from a Cabinet secretary, whom he
did not name, saying, to the effect, that “if you want
war, let’s have a war. We will unleash the BIR on your
businesses.”
The ANC
said a source identified the official as Trade Secretary
Peter Favila, but Favila vehemently denied this. He
hoped del Rosario would name the Cabinet man concerned,
to spare the innocent.
Also on
Thursday, the Management Association of the Philippines
(MAP) in a statement challenged government to do some
soul-searching and go beyond rhetoric in fighting
corruption.
MAP said
it has chosen “country above self” for its theme for the
past three consecutive years to emphasize the importance
of patriotism in all actions.
“We are
now compelled to speak out in the face of the frequency
of corruption cases and scandals that have been growing
in scope and intensity, to wit: the Joc-joc Bolante fertilizer
scam, the General Garcia case, the Jose Pidal scandal,
the Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard, the North and
Southrail projects, the ‘Hello Garci’ tape, the reported
shameless distribution of cash gifts in Malacañang,
the questionable procurement of DepEd textbooks, DND
helicopters and BOC x-ray machines, the Comelec
MegaPacific computer deal, and now the scandalously
overpriced NBN-ZTE deal.”
That
these cases can happen in a bureaucracy “supposedly
protected and sometimes immobilized by an elaborate set
of checks and balances indicates a serious breakdown in
public governance, marked by either inability to execute
or the outright unwillingness to perform what is
expected of leaders and managers,” MAP said.
The
obvious consequences of this breakdown, it warned, “are
the widescale wastage of scarce resources, the
deterioration in the quality of public service, and the
creeping apathy among public servants who initially try
to do well but are eventually demoralized by the glaring
contradictions in their leaders’ behavior.”
It
reminded everyone that “corruption in public service is
antipoor. The public money that goes to private pockets
could have otherwise been used to build schoolhouses,
buy textbooks and train the teachers of our public
schools. They could have built hospitals and bought
much-needed medicines for the indigent patients. They
could have upgraded the salaries and built homes for our
soldiers, policemen, teachers and government
employees.”
Since
business leaders and managers are “expected to
immediately order an impartial and thorough
investigation, fire all those involved, and offer to
resign for having failed in our duty to protect our
company’s assets and reputation” in case of wrongdoing
in the private sector, then all the more should business
demand similar action in government chickanery, said
MAP.
It
challenged the Church, civil society, the police and the
military to heed the call for thorough cleansing of
government, and stop attempts to further cover up
official wrongdoing. |
